You guys have found the same answers I did, Wiseco and Diamond were the only two that made them (other than Raylar) there are also a few strokers out there now that werent 18 months ago. I wanted to stroke but couldnt find a crank. Arent either of you concerned about the block? Will one of you please do this with the DART block and 4.5 (or more) bore and the aluminum heads? This could be a badazz combo but I havent seen it done yet.

I have the Raylar heads on my 496/600's - they are nice pieces. Raylar has bigger performance CNC heads now but when I bought mine they werent available. I took my heads to 3 different places in South Florida to have them ported when I bought them and nobody would touch them and guarantee a performance improvement. One of the guys said "Darin designed them, they only thing you can do by fooling with them is mess them up"
I think that says they are pretty nice heads for the money.... Now I want to get them CNC'd like their performance heads and see what difference it makes.

Any decent company will make you pistons...thats all Raylar did, I would guess he is now using the Wiseco's. He is using Scat rods im pretty sure too. He cites in an old post you cant use the stock rods so that tells me he is using a 990 pin, not the stock 1.04.

Scat is making an AWESOME crank as previously mentioned, but I dont think that is what Raylar is selling, cant be just based on price....far too cheap from Raylar so it must be an offshore crank and machined here.

In the end, after all the math is done, cheaper to buy a set of 525s and sell the 496s.

Its close in price and horsepower, but if you do some work I think its cheaper building new. Plus, you have to change the wiring harness so there is some work to be done. The 600's are probably 30 more HP than a 525 realistically but I wanted new. I did 10 different spreadsheets and ended up getting the specs that Raylar wanted, ring end gap, clearances and hone then built it to what they "prefer" had the short block bored and built locally and called in a few favors from the race crowd. I built both mine shortblock up for $26K with long tube 105 Dana exhaust. So when we are debating $1000 dollars, I prefer what I already know. Plus, I have a strange attraction to the 496's :) I really think they have potential to be reliable.

When i bought my 496/Whipple, i was told the rods were changed for a set of Eagle rods and Wiseco blower pistons
(8:1) from Raylar.

Not knocking building the 496s at all. Each their own, I can do it all myself except for machining, but my time is worth money too! After I did the math, in my case, it would be cheaper to buy low hour take out 525 and yes, spend a bit more for "incidentals" and be done.

I decided to keep the 496s stock because after I spend that amount of money I won't be able to recover it so I might as well throw 30k in the sock drawer for my next boat.

PS, watched your videos on YouTube when I was researching and it sounds great!!

I have to agree; My customer called me asking about someone else telling him just bolt the Whipple on top and GO! I have never spoken to this guy, until then. He wanted to keep the engine hatch without any modification. This was an Eliminator deck cat, he was also informed from Eliminator, before calling me; you need to make changes before bolting the Whipple on. He was dead set on using the 8.1 obviously the money was not an issue. In the engine, we could have sold the 8.1 and started over again. He already had the Dana exhaust, and it was going to maintain the closed cooling system. Starting over would have cost more and we have have parts left over.
If anyone wants to buy, a crank, heads, cam, lifters induction system and a wiring harness. I have it available at a fair price or make a fair offer.

What cranks heads and cam and what induction system? I may be interested still.

Anybody have a torque honing plate for rental. My engine shop does not have one for this motor
Before I buy one I thought I would see if anybody help a brother out. I have one on hold for a few days just incase

These are too new yet for any take outs but look like a nice option.
http://www.mercuryracing.com/sterndrives/hp520.php

I have the stock Nodular crank ( Had it polished and inspected by Shaftech INC) stock heads, cam, efi intake, injectors and harness off or the H.O.