Mercury 565 HP (525) at Miami Boat show.
 

Was at the show today and saw the 565 HP Mercury 525. I assume this is a new generation of 525/565. Is this the future? Are 525's gone? Personally I am not crazy about the fairing covering the flame arrestors..... but it is 40 more HP.

Kieth:

Now with Ilmor also out with their new MV570 lsx 454 engine I would assume mercury Racing came out with this quick option as a counter to the new Ilmor engine and I would assume they also want to get his engine certified in Europe for that market so the other changes were possibly needed to get it into compliance. I would suspect the HP525efi has run its run.
JMO

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

Yes the engine is ugly. Same as the ugly plastic shroud on the 496 and the 1100/1350. But the 565 is the worst looking of them all!

Wonder why the went to 533 CUBIC INCH?

Very tepid reception to this engine. Nothing but crickets there every time that I walked past it at the show.

I agree. The mercury booth overall was lame unless you liked outboards....but if that is the case then hang with the crowd at seven marine booth!

At least there were some high performance mercury engines spread around at some go fast booths.

I was wondering that too. Most good stuff Merc makes is 557. Why didnt they make it a 557 like their SC engines? It probably would have been nice round 600HP.

That shroud is kinda like a bastard stepchild... the only thing that came to my mind was wtf is that?!

The answer to the 533 question is very easy.
When Mercury Racing gets the standard Gen 6 blcok they use the bore is 4.470" and with a 4.0 stroke you get 502 cubic inches.
Add a 4.25" stroke crankshaft to this same block and Whola! You get 533 cubic inches.
Means they keep using the blocks they already have and just get new crank and rods and they stay with a block I am sure they probably already own a few of.

I have to agree they could have in the past and now done a much better job of totally redesigning a better looking and more efficient intake system and not go with a modified current EFI manifold and then throw a cheezy looking plastic cover over it Obvoiusly , market is tight and they are trying to control costs. They have a problem with the "COST" word, especially with customers!

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

Talked to Brad, our Mercury rep, while at the show. 525 and 600 will stay in production, and available as long as there is demand.

Remember, Mercury Racing engines are on an as needed/as built/as delivered production status since the economy tanked.

What intake is used on this engine? I know the old one was an Arizona Speed and Marine. Thought I'd heard it was a retro'd GM RamJet or something.