What RPM does the 710 run? If the answer is 6500, then maybe the 700SCi at 5200 isn't that far off, blower drive loss balanced by lower mechanical losses at lower RPM.

On the other hand, if the V-10 is better than the BBC let's add a blower to it!:D What will the block and rotating assembly handle if you supercharge it? Is the 710 using the better parts I hear the car guys talking about?

Tom

I think it was a 39'ish Outerlimits, twins.

The Ilmor was priced a little more.
The Ilmor got better fuel economy at higher speeeds but didn't do as well at lower speeds.

The Ilmor was slightly faster (prop accordingly) with a top speed of 109 to 108 1/2 or something to that affect.

Well, I was way off.

Motors, speed, etc.

Here's the link.

http://www.mercuryracing.com/_media/...e--Boating.pdf

I bought a set of new Ilmor takeout engines based on such grand promises of customer satisfaction to come. Then after the purchase when reality didn't live up to the sales pitch I was asked by his boss, "Did you get that in writing?"

Two years ago I spent a lot of money switching from a set of Mercury 525's to Ilmor 625's largely based on promises about how I would be able to upgrade my engines to the 710's at a low cost once they were introduced the following spring. Based on that promise I endured a rigging nightmare at their rigger (of cost and time) to make the Ilmors fit in my Fountain. After enduring a four month, 300+ hour rigging job (I was told before-hand that the Ilmors would be easy to swap with the Mercs -WRONG) Ilmor backed away from their promise to take care of me regarding the 710 upgrade. So after missing half a boating season while this install was going on (it was suppose to take 3- 4 weeks) and after spending $52K on engines and $20K+ and 4 months to have them installed (the bill was larger but the rigger said he didn't feel right charging me $30K+ because the orignial estimate was a mere $3K per side), so after all that I go a whopping 2mph faster than my Merc 525's, and then months later .............after all this trouble and expense......... Ilmor says they can't honor their promise to take my engines back in on trade towards the 710's. I am told that too many customers want to exchange them so I am SOL.

I wont bore you with the gory details that followed but I'll probably never again be as passionate about performance boating after this boondoggle. I'll get over it someday but it's going to take a while. It's not so much the money (I can afford to pay up) but the principal of it all that has left a bad tase in my mouth.

I am not saying that there is anything wrong with the Ilmor product per-say - it's just that in my case the sales pitch about performance gains and future upgrades wasn't based in reality. The engineers are great. I hear the service people are great. But god forbid that you ever have to call out the sales manager because you want him to honor a sales pitch that sold you on the Ilmors in the first place. To say the least it kind of makes you feel..... ...unwanted.... by the whole Ilmor family.

BTW Ilmor, I am still have that nasty harmonics problem that I've had from day one when the engines are below 4000 rpm - a range where we customers often like to run them. We were suppose to address it when we swaped out to the new 710's but as you know that never happened - so I still have the same problem I complained about right after the install, in 2006. If you still offer that outstanding customer service how about fixing my problem with your engines because no one enjoys riding in this boat when it is below 4000 rpm because of that darn dronning. (Btw, if you do finally contact me about fixing the problem can you have anyone but the sales manager do it because the two of us just don't communicte well).

Yea I spent a couple weekends at home because he told me he was coming into town to meet with me and iron out my issues. Both times he was a no-show and didn't even give me a follow up phone call to explain why.

I've never heard any other complaints from members here on OSO about the Ilmor sales pitch so I just assumed that for whatever reason I was the only unlucky person that had received such mis-statements - so I kept my trap shut. If your post is correct then I guess that isn't the case.

Claiming that your company did a "full motor swap" instead of what appears to the reality, "Ilmor came and repaired them" doens't seem like much when you are all excited about making a new boat purchse, but I wish I had know that the guy was prone to such mis-statements before I bought into his sales pitch.

Live and learn.
Live and learn.

WoW...................................

I got to be honest, I'd be half tempted to drag my $h!t to their front door.

This is bar far the most extreme case of bad service from Ilmor I've heard of.

[QUOTE=NASCAT;2463096]Own a boat w/ Twin 625's & in the process of trading up for a boat w/ 710's

Feel free to call me.

704-455-0659 W
704-376-3761 H[/QUOTE

Ok spill it. Is the one that was in Palaka?

I put a good deal of time into getting them to honor the promise. My rigger, errr, their rigger, also put in a good deal of time trying to ge them to do right by me. After a year of wrangling we finally got something out of them on paper. But it was no where near what they had promised me the previous year and when I countered they quickly pulled even that offer - the only one on paper they ever gave me to take my engines back in on trade.

I trade stocks for a living and if my head isn't totally into that I can lose a lot of money fast. I thought about calling them out on OSO but it takes time, energy and in my case it would cost a lot of missed opportunity in my trading. I have also never heard a bad word about them on OSO so I considered myself the unlucky guy who feel thru the cracks. So I let it go.

I likely never would have mentioned anything but when you casually detailed how you were told what appears to be an exaggeration it struck a nerve. To not say anything at that point runs contrary to what OSO is all about - sharing experiences.

I have asked the same question.
I think early on this was a problem.
They caught it and fixed it by adding a return line and my understanding is that this took care of the problem.
John

If your talking about the vapor lock, I believe a return was added and it fixed the problems.

[QUOTE=vagrant;2466132]There are actually 2 options out there! Both have Ilmor 710's. Ones a 30 & one's a 32. I've not made a deal for either of them, YET!!:cool-smiley-027:

[QUOTE=NASCAT;2466273]

I'll take the one you don't............ Nice looking rides.

The yellow one

[QUOTE=NASCAT;2466273]
Wow well good luck and let me know when we need to go pick it up!!! The GMC has not pulled anything in a while!

I say the 30. But just because you get the #6 roostertails.

And knowing you - that is 2' less that you have to buff to a high gloss with a diaper everytime that you take it out.

The 32 has #6's the 30 doesn't

The current spec fuel system has a return line and has corrected the vapor lock issue. I have not heard of any issues.

48gph at WOT
6300 redline- 710

What boat was that in (48gph)

Stainless is correct.

The 30 is almost 10mph faster than the 32. The plan would be to upfit the new Ilmor drives upon release promoting a complete Ilmor pkg.

[QUOTE=vagrant;2466427]I'll keep that in mind since I've already made 2 trips to LCM in the past 6 weeks!

I have had the 550's and now the 625's and can assure you they are one of the best engines on the market today. I was a diehard Merc fan until I had the ilmors. I got extremely good customer service from Ilmor and only had one problem which they flew Ian down to my house, on my dock, and fixed the problem, which was an idle solenoid. Lets see a mec tech come to your house. Not knocking any techs, but I know their answer would be bring in the boat for a check up. I now have 3 Ilmor service centers within a 30 min drive.
As for fuel economy, merc is not in the ball game. You can ask anyone that boats in our club what kind of fuel mileage I get. On long trips I will get equivalent fuel mileage of the 496 merc package in nearly the same boat and weight. As for the 700 mer vs. the 700 Ilmor, I undestand the Ilmor is about 40% more fuel eff. than the merc.
Rebuilds? Merc 200 to 300 hrs depending on how hard you drive. Ilmor 350 to 500 hrs. depending on how hard you drive. New drives, they are testing drives now and hope to have them out by the end of the year. If they are as good as their motor package, I will own them also
Any one want to talk about specifics, call me at 704-239-1410

Whereas all my experiences w/ Ilmor have been positive I do remember reading and or hearing about MarginMn's experiences but simply don't know what to make of it, nor the fact that Ilmor bailed on attending a boat show w/o giving any notice. Only those involved know what really happened. Both experiences are so opposite of Ilmor's commitment to building a superior product & offering 5 star support. As in any business there are going to be less than desirable outcomes from time to time that everyone learns from hopefully.

A fellow boater of mine was affected by the valve train recall & I know for a fact he received 2 new engines. The crisis was he had custom colored engines that aren't just sitting there on the floor at Ilmor ready to go like the silver & red ones are. Supplying 2 new engines was critical to keeping his boat build on schedule and Ilmor prevailed. If after recalling & tearing down a few engines to better determine what was going on Ilmor determined the problem was isolated to a component that could be replaced in the field & that deemed to be more cost effective that decision would make sense to me. I don't see Ilmor as being judged by an all or nothing jury. It their perogative to cover their engines underwarranty as they see fit. At the end of the day the customer moves forward w/ valvetrain free issues then Ilmor has lived up to their commitment.

Just one man's $.02 & I would say the exact same thing if we were talking about our friends at Merc.

30 0r 32
 

Mike,
Are you leaning towards the 32 or the 30 skater??
I have seen the 30 and is is really fast and nice.
Bill Jr. went by me in a 30 like i was standing still.

How did you arrive the 40% mark........ Is there something out there that shows this data or just your experience.

I would love it to be true...............................

Both are nice boats. I like prefer the cockpit & instrumentation of the 30 but the paint on the 32. As an overall package I like the 30, but as a more bullet proof & bigger water capable boat the 32 is the better choice. Ultimately I can't really afford the 32 unless I get a small piece of todays $155M Powerball! Stay Tuned!:D

Steet,

Who has Ilmor identified as Ilmor service capable in our area? I knew Extreme Marine was selling boats w/ the power but I didn't think they actually serviced them at the current time.

You guys can identify me as your service guy!!! I'll come down ANYTIME to get away from this Michigan weather!!! Or if you really need me, i'd come too. :cool-smiley-011:

Does anyone have the HP and TQ dyno curves for the 550, 625 and 710 engines? Please post.

Southocg, the numbers I got were from dyno testing results between the 2 engines. I have not seen the test sheets though. From my experience, I do not have a hard time believing the numbers.
Michael as for service facilites in our are there are actually 4 listed, but I only listed the 3 that were close to us.
Boat Repair Plus--Denver
Marine Machine---Cornelius
Extreme Marine--Salisbury
and Powerboat Sevice--- Raleigh---Sonnys Guy

does anyone on this board have some real hours on the 710, like 100 hours or more. Im trying to figure out how the motors will last 500 hours if someone does not have anywhere close to that, and better yet stating that the 700 Merc..who has a track record, will only get about 2-300 hour life span..Thanks Jeff

Ilmor 710
 

Sixty hours on a 2007 710 in a '07 Lavey Craft 24 with IMCO SC drive absolutely trouble free. Out of the 39 rigs that I've owned this is the most satisfying yet. Certainly the Merc 525HP was nice as was the Crockett 565 Whipple. But for my style of boating, (freshwater lake, I'm old, I like to accelerate, I like to go pretty fast, and I like semi-exotic stuff) this is the ticket. Vee bottom, torque at a relatively high rpm, 6300 redline, equals less drive issues.

Low 90's is good enough for me considering all the drives that I've bought and time lost waiting for some part because of overpowering, over driving, etc. Probably the best part is that there are no after market parts that I can buy and screw this thing up. I have been triple guilty of the propensity to "if it ain't broke, break it by out thinking the engine designer."

Ilmor makes a good piece. Perfect? No. I'm satisfied I can break it but no luck yet. Quent

Jeff, I am only stating what was told to me at the Miami Boat show at the mercury booth. When I asked them about rebuilds, they said, and I quote "I would recommend at minimum a top end overhaul at 200 to 250 hours" . I was being generous with 300 hrs.

This is pretty close to what I've been told....
If the Ilmor truely does hold up, even better!

Guys Ive been told a little different on the Merc 700's...As to the Ilmors, I personally like them other than what I know on the vapor lock issue's. Service centers are also an issue until they grow. The other is the drive issue. To be competetive against the market as the Mercury's Monopoly..you must have a proven drive marketed with a proven motor package. Until then I see they are no better than a custom guy selling motors, not at all a bad thing, just unfortunately not as good for resale. Jeff

Jass I know you do alot of research and stay well informed, have you looked into this new drive at all? Also what would the rebuild cost's be compared to the Merc? Has anybody said anything about that?

I have no info on the drive's, but know of a good surface drive that would work real well:D

My understanding is that Ilmor hasn't received engine #1 back yet for a rebuild (or any of the early sale engines for that matter). Still going strong @ 450hrs!!

Twins with 450hrs? That's pretty good. That's better then I figured they'd go.

There is video of this boat somewhere. I think 1 and 2 are in a white Skater.

Ilmor Dude

Be on the look out for a pkg! Shipped today to your attention!

Bada$$!!! I'll pay you back someday, promise. Thanks man