Get rid of the 496s

Thirdchildhood:

Don't you think your caustic comments about 496's are getting a little out of control? There are about 50,000 496's-8.1L marine engines out there in the market, with probably 99% of them performing beautifully when properly used, not abused, serviced and maintained properly.
You now seem smug as a lucky owner and operator of a wonderful engine like the HP525efi and there is no other performance engine out there worthy.
You might want to do a little investigation and realize there are only about 4,000-5,000 HP525efis built to date and a goodly percentage of those probably around 5% or more have suffered serious mechanical failures and issues, one being the Merc./CMI header issue alone.
In my opinion your calls for ridding the sport of Merc 496's is baseless and absurd.

Besgt Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

HuH? That's about 225 engines...sheesh. I know 4 people with 525s and ALL of them had the header issue. Not much of a sample population but that seems waaaaayyyyy low.

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Yep! Sell them AJ, we can build some snotty 502's. Or loosen up the purse and buy it with the 525's

Take the stock aluminum manifolds off and port them......

Ray, I never mentioned you, Raylar or any of your products. To bring a 496 up to the power and quality level of a 525EFI would easily cost $20,000. For that $20,000 you can buy a low hour take out 525 and have a proven engine package with resale value, great performance and durability, a little prestigious (yes, I'm smug as a bug in a rug with my 525) and an engine that any performance shop knows inside and out. And you have the 496 to sell and off-set the costs of installation such as relocating exhaust tips. Don't take it so personal. If you want to get personal then two can play that game. It is my opinion. When I bought my Donzi I wanted an HP525EFI package. They did not offer it. The 73-74 mph was decent but not quite to the level that I wanted. When I was kicking around my options and talking to people it was unanimous to get rid of the 496. It is a white elephant. The 525 gave me 10 mph, exhilarating acceleration and a very reliable and desirable package (there I go being proud of my 525 again). This is all my opinion and I will share it every chance I get. IMHO do not try to turn a 496 into a 525 when you can do better for less. To lean out the 496 and drop almost $5,000 on headers looking for 2 mph is not the best plan. (again, IMO) Rock on.

Thirdchildhood, I did not mention the name Raylar in my question to you and I did not mention or try to promote my products. I was talking about the fact that there are over 50,000 496-8.1L marine engines out there and a very small percentage have had serious problems and the huge majority of them run and perform in excellent fashion.
Your statement seems to always be on OSO, take out the 496 and throw it away or sell it.
I am not trying to get personal here just differing with your opinion of the 496-8.1L marine engines.
I realize your particular lucky and successful aquisition of your HP525efi and it is obvious good results. That's not what has always happened to everyone and everywhere in the engine retrofit experience. If one looks and realizes lately how few low hour, good condition HP525's (with a good set of non-leaking headers) are available in the market place one sees that this option has fast dried up and the greatly reduced almost to a trickle sale of new new boats with HP525efi engines that are being retrofitted or upgraded one quickly realizes that duplicating your expierence of a few years ago is getting nearly non-existant or much more expensive.
One can also realize due to the market and the somewhat better availability of used 496's, the reasle market for these engines is somewhat reduced and prices of these units have fallen accordingly.
I am not sure your dollar figure of a $20,000 complete HP525efi used engine is really doable today especially since one doing this today would most likely have to or want to change out the Merc/CMI headers and the $5K -$6K price tag for that jumps the price a great deal.
If a boater has a perfectly good running low to moderate hour Merc 496 and wants to get his power up the 560-570HP that most HP525's produce its very doable with our kits and a good set of headers and I think the $15-$16K price of doing so is a great dollar value. why is that the cost and how do I know that becuase we have a lot of 496 owners who have and are doing that every month with great success and relaibility from a very nice quality marine performance engine.
Just my opinions here and nothing personal at all!

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

Maybe I could borrow your man purse...

I wouldn't put CMI's on my lawnmower ... even if they were free!