We are thinking of upgrading from our
272 to a 33' Baja. Any owner comments
good, bad or otherwise? Probably going
with two 496HO's due to the closed
cooling for salt water use and pro-charging
them due to the mental problem I have,
that being the need for speed.

Thanks, Bill and Bev

Love the 33 just too poor. One thing to think about would be waiting for the new 525's from merc. Keeping it stock makes it easier to fix and the new motors will have closed cooling system and lots of other new stuff. I just love those blue motors and chrome tube headers sitting back there. Don't know the price for the upgrade but it could be comparable to supercharging the 496's and constantly rebuilding the drives. By the way Merc is now sending XR uppers with the 496ho's to improve the reliabilty.
Enjoy your new boat and post pictures to make the rest pf us jealous.

I think the price is going to be close to $30-$35k on top of the 496HO price for the new 525SC. HP500's will run about $20k over the 496HO. Those prices are for twins and that's what I was told when I investigated.

The new motor is a replacement for the 500 efi and is not a sc it is the 496 version of the 500

Viper 340 is right on the money. We had already ordered our 36 when I heard about the 525's. Talked to the dealer and he talked to Baja and the real problem for me was that they were not going to be able to get the engines until late July to early August. This meant a September delivery on the boat?

They finally told me that the upgrade to the 525 over the 500's was expected to be between $5000 to $8000 per engine, but nothing was written in stone as of that time (May 1st).

With the 500's being such great engines, proven and less money, not to mention on the shelf ready to go, it was a no brainer for me. It I was doing this next year after the engines have been out a whilee, it would certainly be worth looking into.