Fever Help Urgent
 

I have a 500EFI that is messed up and is going to cost about $3,000 to fix. The dealer is trying to help me by offereing to trade my 500EFI (which sits in 100 pieces) for a 496HO. How fast will my boat go with a HO? 29 Fever single step.

71 ish

something in it for the dealer........they dont trade to lose money.

With my 500EFI I was running 71 on GPS with the boat never being propped right, since it's a new to me boat. With a 24 Hydro, I was spinning 4,600 RPM and with a 24B1 4 blade I was spinning 5,200 RPM, both at 71mph. If I could keep my speed close to that I would consider switching alot faster.

............nope...............

Well the root of the questions was "How would a 29 perform with a 496HO?"

James

Mid to upper 60's depending on fuel and people load.

I'd hold out for the Blue motor if I were you.

Ron

Im not an expert, but I think the 496 might require a different wiring harness than your 500 efi. Plus I think they run a different computer, with all the sensors the 496's run for the smartcraft and guardian system. Sounds like a lot of work for the dealer to install it correctly.

Headers are different also

I would say keep it original .As far as retaining the value of the boat. It would be in best interest .Or you could find something reallly HP to upgrade with.. I would not recomend just trying to make it run again. Fountain is prided on being the best. I would try to keep it the best if possible.

SD FEVER has had his 496 up to 79 on GP in a 27 .A 27 should be slower than a 29 from what I have read. He has had the top end all done up.Probably spent at leat 3 grand just to do that.

Hope this helps.
Chad

Fix the 500. 3K too fix it can't be hurt too bad.

My guess is the dealer wants your blue motor. You will spend twice or more then 3k to get the 496 to run with the 500.

Since a 29 with a 500EFI spins a 24 - 25 Hydro Q-IV, you may need to change to a 1.65 drive ratio to get into a decent prop range, if you switch to the 496. I would ask if that is included in the "swap", too. I think its ability to get up on plane with the 496 would be dismal, at best. They're not *stellar* getting up on plane even with the 500's. I've had 3 29's, and the best one getting up on plane was the one with the 575SCi.

A 29 with 496 HO, is going to be slow, like 65mph, you will loose HP but you will not get the rpm's for top end. Fix your blue motor, or trade up. Like this if every thing would match up.
http://www.offshoreonlyclassifieds.c...o24447-en.html

WILL

Agree with Jim - Keep the 500!!!

A 496 HO will hit around 65-67 or so under normal boating conditions. I would not do it in a boat like a 29 Fever.

Straight from Fountain (if that's acceptable to you), the 29 hull year for year was just a tiny bit faster than it's sister 27. The 496 HO ran 71 ish stock in the 29' hull while the same engine ran 68ish in the same year 27' hull. The 496 engine is an okay idea i think but comes with some fairly large caveats...

The Blue Merury 500 has a way better bottom end (rotating assembly) and a considerably better but not perfect set of heads. The 500 is stronger in my opinion but is also not close cooled. Lots of little differences that add up and it's best for the buyer to carefully make his own decison.

Don't forget however, that the 500 headers are WAY expensive and you can NOT use them on the 496. Without starting a p_ssing contest on purpose, I'd say that 3K to get a 500 back to stock with some type of warranty on labor and parts for the repair is a better choice unless you want to go Raylar and/or spend way more than 3K to get on the water again only because of the engine you currently own.

I blew up a 496 and have learned alot about them from both, my own experience and through the very courteous and helpful team @ Raylar. I'd seriously suggest talking to some people and carefully weighing it out. The more I think about it, it's a big decision actually...

Racerngr1. I'm better on the phone if you want to drill me. I'm only offering friendly, sound advice. I DO NOT claim to be an expert. God what did I just sign up for - - - - :hitfan:
760-522-0202

Alright I am going to stick with the 500EFI. It looks like the shop was able to fix the problem so it hopefully won't be a huge deal.

Will 496 headers fit on a 2005 502???Or is 500 a really a 502?

Would someone be interested in selling a set of headers for a for a 502? I think I may be missing some HP with the gill offshore manifolds. Any input on this?? I trust your advice. SD Fever. You have not steered me wrong yet.

BTW.My anti glare should be in this week. (I 86ed the speaker box) Testing the new prop at Elsinore Friday..
Thanks
-Chad

I don't know anything about your manifolds. Sorry. The 496 8.1L is a different block than the 502 which is what the merc 500 is based on. My comment on the headers in above post was only to emphasize that a good deal of money is tied up in existing headers that would not be able to be used on the new 496 that the guy was asking about.

Putting the 496 in place of his existing 500 would be quite a bit of loot unless they're giving him a really good price for trade in which seems difficult to realize imop.

I think the best plan for 496 owners is to start slowly building up something and buying items as you can afford them. I recomend Raylar but regardless of what you do it will be easier to swallow if you've been doing some prep work. There's a lot of good, fun hours in the stock configuration in the meantime.

I think the 496 is more of a stroker motor that goes faster and faster the longer you let it go where the 502 is more of a low end and right now power motor .

.02

The dealer is probably into the 496 for around 7K, never said if it was new or used. So they get a 500EFI for 7K, put it back together and sell it for 12ish rebuilt.

Keep it!!

Racerngr1, how did this happen? Just curious because my father runs a 2001 500efi in his boat,although on a large lake with many no-wake areas, he's doesn't baby it. It has about 300 hrs and I'm pretty sure all he's done is change oil and filter every 25 hrs or so, nothing else.

thanks
Tom

I don't have much good advise to contribute to you. I have only had this boat about 10 hours and so far have put 6k into repairs, not including what I'm up against now, so another 3k ish equals about 9k in repairs in about 10 hours time. I LOVE BOATING! :angry-smiley-038:

You know what Boat stands for...Break Out Another Thousand......

B. Bend
O. Over
A. And
T. Take it

:drink:

I know a guy with a good low hrs 502 in CT that may part with it in the $3800.00 range its a carbed motor but may be a good place to start depending on how bad your 500 is beat up.

My motor is in the process of being re-built right now, should be done next monday.

glad to hear it. Hopefully its not too bad and the price isn't gonna be outrageous.

I am a dealer for CAT performance parts if you need connecting rods timing sets anything they stock let me know. I'll try and hook you up.
Boating is expensive enough.
I run thier H beam rods in my 878 Hp firebird engine and have 3 seasons on them with no issues.