mlb75

IHMO there should be no complaints if they got ~50 hours out of a race motor, that's the trade off you get when you go that route. If they're having a lot of issues with the 1100 and 1350 motors I'd be very curious to hear about what they are and see if it's similar to the wear items the race teams are seeing during rebuilds in the 1650.

Anyone know what the sales number differences are between the 1100 and 1350, it seems most go the 1350 route. Are the 1100's seeing the same issues as the 1350's?

fountain4play

Just my personal take is that with a Merc be it a 1100, 1350 or 1650 the availability of a replacement in a pinch is probably better than with a custom engine builder... I haven't heard about any problems with the 1100's but do know that there have been quite a few of the 1350's go south while still under warranty when in a poker run boat. The reliability doesn't seem to be there for something that cost's as much as a decent house but a lot of people seemed to like them or just want to have what is the popular setup. Jim

Rick G

Phragle , I believe that is the boat in question He boats on the lake in Ontario Canada that I do . I was told it ran strong at LOTO and grenaded an engine shortly there after. Tommy had 3 of his turbo motors in the 47 Apache " Firewater " and I was told after 200 hours all they had to do was change the fuilds . If that big old resin bucket didn't give those motors a work out nothing will . Again I believe the warrenty is the defining difference . As for turn around service altough I don't own a Sterling or Chief I would venture to say their customer service is pretty good .
RG.

Comanche3Six

With a one year warranty that should get pricey for Mercury Racing quickly...http://mercuryracing.com/1350/longer/

I wish Fred Kiekhaefer ( He's retired) was a OSO member. Love to hear from him on this matter.

302Sport

I think what's pissing most people off is that Mercury does the bare, I mean bare minimum in terms of warranty work and parts replacement in order to limp the engine through the warranty period and then after the warranty runs out it is the customers problem. Instead of just sending out a new motor and taking the old one back they try and piece the old one together in hopes that it runs just long enough to make it out of warranty.

stimleck

sadly the 1650 in Ontario has no warranty, only the 1350

Enough 4 Play

Is there any truth to the rebuild cost being $50k a piece if there are no broken parts.

stimleck

I used to own blown Chiefs and can tell you that when we blew one Tommy had a replacement shipped to Toronto in less than a week and he came here and installed it himself. At that point we didn't know the cause of the breakdown us or the motor Tommy didn't care because it only had a dozen hours on it. All I know is we were scheduled for a poker run and he made it happen. Turned out we won with Tommy throttling and the motor was awesome, To bad we broke some stringers on the old Scarab, they were not built well enough for Tommy Hofstetor driving lol

Comanche3Six

Chief Engines.....Their reputation shines like a diamond.

bulletbob

If I had that kind of coin it surely wouldn't be going to Mercury. Also I own two merc outboards with very little merc components in them or the EFI ECU for that matter. The 280 outboards were rigged to blow right out of the box with a lean condition in the ECU. The Hell with Merc! I would spend my money with Tommy, Mark Boose or a host of other engine builders before being raped by Merc.