Just for the record, I'd get the 525 without a doubt.

A salesman once said and I quote..:p
If you have to ask the fuel consumption of the bigger motor you can't afford the gas to put in it...lol
in my case..
I just made the wife get a second job...:D

I have run my boat with both a 496HO/X/labbed B25" and the current 525/XR labbed B28", and I´d swear that at cruise speeds the 525 uses no more gas than the 496 was, but when I use the 12+ mph extra top speed, things look different.

I log an average of around 15 gals/hour, and I get places alot faster than before!

I have a Smartcraft Monitor in front of the passenger. The momentary fuel consumption figure almost impresses more than the GPS speedo............
And yes, the 525 is worth every dollar!

It isn't about money. I want to keep the range up. I want to make fuel the last issues in any trip, meaning running out quickly.

I have no idea what my Freightliner gets for MPG, all I know is that is holds about 130 gallons and I can go pretty dang far on full tanks.

I have an idea of how far I can go in my boat with the 496s, just wnated to know how much that would be affected.

I would be taking my 60 hours 496 HOs out of my boat and putting in brand new 525s.

Thanks for the response so far.

What's the labor involved in the motor swap? Plug and play?

Do you know the fuel consumption (in litres/hour or gallons/hour) of the 525 EFI at idle, 3000 RPM and WOT ?

I wish! :rolleyes:

But, if fuel ecomony was a major factor I would have opted to go with another pair of HO's.

Glad I didn't! :cool:

Macklin, I can't help it if you keep your sticks bent over the dash! :boat:

My numbers above came from the 300 mile roundtrip that Rich, myself, and about 10 other boats did a couple summers ago from Coles Point to Baltimore (with stops in Solomon's, Island, Kent Island, and St. Michael) over 4 days. Again, it was easy cruising with a few fast jaunts.

Idling out from the dock, it is around 8 -12 litres per hour, at 3000 it goes up to 40 litres per hour, and at WOT there is about 160 going through per hour!
The Smartcraft readout is very accurate. When I recently tanked up full, the gauge indicated 270 litres had been used. 274 litres went in when I brimmed the tank!