496 Raylar Upgrade questions Opinions Ray or those in the know?
 

Posted this in the technical section this morning but didn't get a response. Thought I would give it a run here! :D

I am about to have my Raylar kit installed on my Sunsation 288. I have a set of CMI Big tube headders and an ECM with the whipple flash. The engine is a 2005 and has 114 hours on it.

Had my mechanic check with mercury and my 496 does have a forged crank. I want a grenade proof engine so I am considering upgrading the bottem end(also because the whipple flash raises the rev limiter to 5500RPMs?). I've heard complaints about the 496 pistons. So I thought I might put a better set of pistons in and balance the rotating assembly.

If I up the compression a little bit would it yield much performance improvement with the 525 Raylar components? I want to be able to run 93 octane gas. Piston recomendations and are the rods good to go(forgot to ask about them would they be forged as well?)? I was told with the whipple flash and the headders I should see around 575HP.

OR! Should I just leave the bottem end alone and go with what I have? The engine is coming out for the install so it does help on the labor costs of doing the bottem end.

I will be calling soon Ray as I need at the least a set of gaskets. Thought it might be an interesting and imformational thread!

Thanks for opinions in advance!

Why not call him tomorrow if he doesn't post here? He can answer your questions.

How much torque is increased with this package? I've seen the hp numbers.

Here is Raylar's webpage with some Dyno results: http://www.raylarengine.com/dyno.html

with 114 hours ,,,,you should be able to just install the raylar kit,,,,no need for the ecm to get reflashed,,,and still make 525 hp

:D I already have a reflashed ecm! That is another question I think I read if you have the Mag HO(which I have) you don't need the reflash??? What is the difference other than the RPM increase with the whipple flash? I also have the intake with bigger injectors already installed. :D never hurts to have more than 525HP!

ttt

If you're going for the 525hp then you only need the 103 cam, the heads, intake. Stock HO computer is fine and recomended. If your 496 is a base model (no HO) then that would be the only reason for flashing computer to get to 525hp. As far as the actual difference between the stock ho program and the Raylar re-flash? There are lots of changes and mods to those files. Not sure how much of that data would be available but you could ask Ray.

If you want the 600hp, then the engine needs to be completely built for it.

Finally, if you are leaving a stock bottom end then I personally would not recomend going over 525hp at all.

Good luck,
jason

Pachanga,

Also I just noticed that your ecm is a whipple re-program. Is it a Raylar program done by Whipple or is it just another program that Whipple themselves sold you?

There are differences as the Raylar program is speciffically theirs where Whipple probably has several different types of offerings but I don't know much about that.

Of course, that may only be the case for the Raylar 600. I'm not totally sure if that's the case across the board.

It is a reflash by whipple for Raylar. The setup I bought is the 103 with headders and the ECM. It has 30 hours on it. The guy was dynoing 565HP. That is the reason for my questions about pistons and balancing!

Pachanga-

Ask SDFEVER how fast his boat went yesterday:cool:

I'd tell you to do the bottom for sure if it were mine. The pistons are brittle. They do break. Obviously, the season is bout over for not all but most of the country. If you're in a fired up hurry to spend a little more time on the water than you could throw it back together with stock bottom end and run temporarily but semi-long term to long term, do the bottom end on your terms instead of having to do it on failure terms.

It'll cost you less to do it now the right way in both time & money. Just my 2 cents.

It's top secret. I can't say how much but it ran over 68 when we got her and those numbers were just recently reversed i think

:evilb:

Thanks for the replies! :D How fast did your boat go yesterday? :rolleyes:

86.4 so far as the engine is loosening up as they say

:eek:

Pachanga:

Your 496 with 114 hours and 565HP should be just fine for many more hours of trouble free use. By the way your crankshaft is not forged since GM quit putting them in 8.1L-496 engines they were delivering to Mercury in 2002. the 2002-1/2 496's and on were equipped with a very stong pressure rolled fillet nodular iron cast crankshaft that will easily handle your 565HP without failure or problems.
The thing that tends to damage the cast pistons (hypereutectic) in the stock 496's is detonation and the inherent weakness of a thin area overe the intake valve relief in the top edge of the piston. I have seen lots of 496's with our Raylar 103 kits go litterly many hundreds of hours some as many as 700Plus and not have a piston failure. I have seen some including stock 496HO's and Mags, go as little as three or four hours and have piston failure. There is no real way to tell if or when it can happen, but the newer 496's , 2003 on have full float pins and they seem to be better as far as strength goes. Make sure you keep good fuel in your 496, keep it well serviced, don't overheat it and you should have hundreds of hours of reliable Raylar BigPower enjoyment.
As for the programming, our Raylar 496 reprograms, they are in a few ways different than the Whipple standard 496 reprograms in areas such as timing advance, operating temperature adjustments and overall rev-limit ranges.
Your ECM reprogram from Whipple will probably have a 5500rpm rev-limiter setting where ours are 5400 rpms.
Just keep your boat propped at a 5400 rpm top operating range since this is not to far past the engine power peak and its not good for an engine to run up on nthe rev-limiter a lot, its hard on the motors internals. Over reving a motor to far past its power peak is not productive and will add to shortening engine life.

As for SDFevers now fast fountain! He started with a stock 496 engine at about 68MPH, he added a Raylar BCK103 525HP kit and started seeing 78mph on a regular basis.
He now has a absolutely beautiful Raylar HO600 with the Dana exhaust and he now sees just a tick under 87 miles per hour. I think that's about as fast as we wants to push that beautiful boat and it goes to show that Raylar Engines Rock!!
Is the 496 Mercruiser engine a good place to start for a performance boat, you bet! great power and relaibility for a very moderate buck. Can you add power above that reliably and keep on going faster, you bet! All of this on 87-89 octane pump gas at decent insurance rates, what more could you ask for! Have fun, be safe and enjoy your Raylar equipped 496!

"I think that's about as fast as we wants to push that beautiful boat and it goes to show that Raylar Engines Rock!!"

Hey now! I'm goin' as fast as I can. It slowly became the little death trap I always dreamed of!!!!!!!!!


:evilb::musik010::party-smiley-020: