I couldn't agree more! I've had 5 sets of CMI's (Mercury's version of them) on blue motors and have had leaks on 4 sets of them. No salt water, either, and the all leaked between 35 hours and 150 hours of use. Personally, if I had to purchase them with my own money, I wouldn't install them on my lawnmower :eek:. Somehow, even then, they would find a way to leak water into my engine. Sorry, but that is my opinion of their product, in particular, their welds.

total bummer-!

How'd the warranty stuff go - Smooth or was it a hassle?

Who does mercury use now?



UD

The one boat was 4 years old when I bought it, but I was the first "retail owner". It was the one with 35 hours on the ECM (a 500EFI) and Mercury said "sorry about your luck", there is a limitation on the age of the power package regardless if I was the first retail owner or not and they would not honor the warranty. The other's were more than 1 year old also, so I knew calling Mercury was a waste of my time. I called CMI when I had my first set of leakers, and they said to send them back and they would fix them ... but I would have to pay to get them fixed. My friend is really really good with a TIG torch and he took them apart and fixed the welds. He fixed all of my other ones, too, and several for other local folks, also. The previous owner of my current boat had CMI fix the leaks in my current set (on a 525 EFI), just before I bought the boat. I was fortunate, I never lost an engine. I still have the reversion cone that we cut out of one of my 500 EFI headers (or tailpipe - I don't remember specifically where it was anymore ... that was in 2002) and it looked like swiss cheese. It had ~ 125 hours on it. I'll try to post a picture of it. Just got to thinking about it, and, what is odd is that it was always the port side header that leaked on every set ... it was the port side header on my current boat that the previous owner had fixed at ~ 63 hours, also. 2 port headers on 500 EFI's, 1 port header on a 575 SCI, and the port header on my current 525 EFI prior to me owning it. I posted here on OSO about the crappy welds on the first one, back in 2002 or 2003, and got a bunch of criticism from the guy at CMI when I posted it. It may still be in the OSO archives :rolleyes:

[QUOTE=Uncle Dave;2982762]No, just saying i have sold hundreds of sets and not had a problem.

My business these days :drool: Sold the PowerPlay and other toys, had to tighten up the outlays since the construction biz is a bit down for now. Be back into something when it picks up again.

I get it, its harder to come up with the dough to spend these days.

Hope it gets better.

UD

The only time I ever lose exhausts is when I overheat them due to water constriction or blockage.

You may have picked up a used rig that could have overheated. (happens) but to have continuous bad luck really blows.

Love to read your post and their response. Please post a link if you can find it.


UD

here is the post from one of my first leakers. It was on a 2000 29 Fountain with 100 hours on it. I believe the responder "jrz" was the guy from CMI based on his responses. None of these headers "looked" like they had been overheated and I know that I never overheated any of them. I've seen several of the 525 EFI headers where one or more of the runners had a purple/blue/yellow tint due to overheating :rolleyes: I used to know what temperatures caused the different colors for different metals, but I have been away from evaluating high temperature metals for quite some time now, and don't remember anymore.

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...t-headers.html

Very good read.

Curious seems your experience showed both good and bad welds in the same header. I looked at a lot of them at teague and never saw anything looking shoddy.

Id love to see any picts, If you are sharing your experience objectively I dont see it as bashing.

Ive had mixed results on products as well and always call it out despite any kind of "loyalty" I might have if Im not taken care of. If Im taken care of Ill post I had a problem but was taken care of.

Thats certainly a sh!t experience.

Im completely F-ed if I ever had a problem because Im not getting headers for this anywhere else. Im already wondering what the tag on these babies is.



UD