They cost me a motor . Droped a valve cracked the block. I sent both to cmi to pressure test & repair they said the starboard was junk and they would'nt warranty it . They said Mercury specs were different than there own (thinner & cheaper materals used) the port is perfect may have been replaced before. I tryed to have the best welder in the state repair it after 6 atempts he gave up. I would like to find a good starbord header only, if any one has one or wants to buy my port header and tail pieces. they are in great condition. I am putting keith ekrert on the new motor.248-933-5595 [email protected]

THats the advice I seem to be getting ,Take them off and pressure test ,otherwise I guess its an expensive crap shoot!!! Is taking them off and reinstalling a do it yourself Job, I've swapped out old mercruiser logs for Stainless Marine once ,not too difficult , and this time theres more room between motors ( one of the benefits of going bigger ) Any Advice? or Tips ?

525's, E-Tops etc., they're all the same, I wish they would last, they just don't......

One of the competitors offers a 5 yr warranty. Will CMI and or Stelling's offer the same?

One more pic....

On a seperate note, a friend of mine told me today that he has to replace all three sets of the headers on his triple engine 525 boat with only 240 hrs on them.

At least they lasted that long.

My fear would be that you can pressure test them and they check good today giving you a warm fuzzy feeling, but next week they develop a leak and take a motor out????

i cant speak for the sport tubes on the 525s but my e topps on the 500 are from 1999 i believe it was the first year of the 500 efi i have 300 hrs i live in jersey i run in salt and fresh water. im sure there a lot of stories not being told, were they all winterized properly did they pull the drain plugs on the dist. tubes after the water before the antifreeze.

no failures for e tops. new 525s lasted 40 hour and cracked in 2 places. thank god they were external

my friend is going thru issues now with his 525's
approx 50 hrs and merc started to give him a tough time, then came around and sent new parts. he still has to pay some of the labor. engine were less that a year old.
he did ask if it could happen again and in replacements were different. he did not get an answer

the boat is a late model epoxy OL. Last year...about 75 hrs ago...they had the header crack (it was repaired) on the center engine and it wiped out all of the valve springs from rust.....luckilly they didn't drop a valve. Now all three engines are being rebuilt and they should have lasted 500+ hours with regular maintenance. the boat was always properly maintained and properly winterized etc....no secrets...

It seems to me that Mercury feels these are "wear items" and need to be replaced every couple of years and the warranty program they offer isn't covering header failures. If they sell it as a package, it should be warrantied as a package IMHO.