400SS New for me 2002, 496 MAG HO's. Tons of questions...
 

Just wanted to break the ice here and introduce myself. I can see I'm gonna have tons of questions on this boat. This is my 4th boat, but only my 2nd Formula. Also the biggest boat I've ever owned. The boat is in GREAT shape, cosmetically & mechanically. Every weekend I get all over her and snap pix & take notes. I have covered every square inch of the engine bay & bilge to acquaint myself with 'what is where'. If anyone has any special expertise on this boat, please let me know so I can 'pick your brain' hahaha

Congrats! Pics

Congrats. I know someone who had a 330SS and the cockpit was huge, I can only imagine a 400. I've looked at 370's but I trailer a lot and that's to much. What kind of top end do you get with 496HO's.

Pics are coming! I saw a GPS indicated 51.3 MPH on the day my surveyor was testing out the boat. The Gulf was glass flat, 3 on board, both fuel tanks reading less than ¼, temp was about 85 degrees with standard SWF humidity. Neutral trim on the drives & tabs. I noted that the owner / seller stated that the last time this boat went WFO was the day HIS surveyor did the same test!

My first question on this boat is about the ‘Smartcraft’ system. I have a Garmin 5212 GPS chartplotter. I was shopping around for a floscan set up for each engine so I could see real time fuel data. A guy at the marina said that I might already HAVE the set up in my Garmin??? I got out the manual and looked through the menu’s. I can’t get to the “Engine” menu because apparently my engines are not on the NMEA 2000 bus? Is this the case? Will this be as simple as buying the NMEA 2000 harness to connect my engines to the Garmin, or is there more I need to do to get these engines ‘talking’ to my Garmin? Any help or expertise appreciated.

You may want to also look into buying merc monitor or vessel view. Merc monitor is cheaper but the new vessel view is very nice. I have the old vessel view in my 2008 with HOs, very handy.

I had a 400SS for 5 years. Loved the boat. Had the 496HO's as well.... Got 53.2 on GPS out of it.
Great boat. Would still have it if I don't change my mind every year on boats!!!! Lol

Good luck with it and congrats.

We'll have our 400ss back in your neighborhood by the end of October. You'll love the boat. See you on the gulf.

You have to put a Merc monitor in to convert to the NMEA 2000 the Garmin has an input for that. I did it on my 525 EFIs into the Garmin 740s You can set upper and lower limits for all the parameters And trigger alarms. It's a nice way to have second opinion relative to analog gauges that aren't always perfect. Fuel burn is displayed on the Merc monitor only. You only need one monitor to drive twins into the Garmin if you don't want to see fuel burn for both/each otherwise you have to double up. I did just the one and double up for total, instantaneous burn rate. it was a bit of a hair puller but worth it in the end.

Thanks Bonesmalon, this is excellent information. So, at the risk of sounding like a complete maroon…let me get this straight, I absolutely need a MercMonitor, or VesselView to ‘translate’ the Smartcraft language into NMEA 2000 language so my Garmin can display info like instantaneous fuel burn & average mpg? In addition to the other data streams that are coming off the engines like oil press, oil temp, coolant temp, batt level, alarms, ect, ect…
And I could get away with just ONE unit, and still be able to see inst. fuel burn (just double the reading?)
Thanks a lot for the info.
PS: I see you are from up state NY. I do plan on doing the entire Erie Canal from Troy to Lake Erie with this boat some day. Maybe 2014 or 2015!
Do you have any experience in the canal system?