Why would Fountain warranty Merc 525 engines, CMI header or oil filters? That warranty is with Merc not Fountain. Neighbor up the street had a 3 525's and nothing but problems with these engines and the CMi headers on them.

It seems to me all or most of the trouble is with the saltwater boats. Any fresh water boats have these problems?

Beak42, the type of water has nothing to do with it...it's the bad welds on the CMI headers they use on the 525

I bought a saltwater boat that had a pinhole header leak after only one year of service. Does THAT happen in freshwater too? I did not have trouble with the welds on my CMI's, at least not yet.

I spoke to the guys at South Austin Marine, they are my area
Fountain Dealer. They claim that they have herd of the prob
but only on salt water applications??. It is a Merc/CMI problom
not the boat maker. That is unless their is engine installation
contributing factors. This makes you really question the 525s
reliabilty and wonder abouit the 600 and 700 series engines

Maybe I can help some with this. If your oil temp goes up, and your pressure goes down, and you have 525's with cmi headers, your filter has collapsed. Change the filter, and your back running. Pull your headers and test for leaks. If by chance they're not leaking, you've had water in your rear cylinders from coming of plane too quick. This is why fountain changed the 08's. I changed from Mercury filters, to an upright canister style which seems to help. The filters cave due to water in the oil. I would assume the salt water would stop the filter up quicker than fresh. The fresh water boats are probably having the same problem, just taking longer to show up.
As for Fountain, "not being aware of the problem", that's an outright lie. CMI will pay for replacements and shipping, but then what??
Signed,
One motor,three sets of headers