Ron has mine apart and sent me approx. 30 pictures yesterday with all the issues and documentation and what we are going to do and when its going to be done, it seems one was sealed and one had been apart before.... they will be right when I get them back next month, with a WARRANTY!!!!

Pat

How many hours on yours?

I know this will probably start a fire storm but I'm going to ask anyway. Is it a good idea to run a full synthetic oil like Amsoil or Mobil 1 vs. the Merc. oil in these engines? How about switching to a full synthetic once the engine(s) have a few hours on them?

Around 450... they were running fine just thought they needed to be freshened up!!!

Great to hear Pat. Get that thing back together! I'm hoping Steves' Skater is done by Feb. if not we will need the gobbler hauler for Islamorada!

Lots of oil threads here and lots of opinions. Use the search feature. I think we all agree that frequent oil changes are needed. Like 2 or 3 times per season in the north.

Seems like everyone is stuck on hours. My 525's had 80 hours on them when I purchased the boat, but 50 were at idle. I'd like to know how many hours > than 4000 or 4500 the engines had when they failed.

That makes me feel better, this thread was making me nervous. Mine have 125 so I'm hoping to make a couple summers.

Thats an excellent point.

I can tell you what most of the guy's that race there 525's do. For the most part the teams will race there 525's for aprox 75-100 hours and change the springs. At 150 plus hours a total rebuild. These motors are at 5450 RPM for most of the time other than getting to and from the race course or test area. It takes in most cases 5 plus years to get those hours before we rebuild and at that there is vary minimal wear. When we get them back and put the fresh power back in we never see any gain in speed. We do it as a piece of mind. I would love to see a team run one till it blew and see just how many hours you could get at WOT. IMO the guardian mode and closed cooling system is my best friend on this motor. If you get a cracked header then all bets are off.
I feel like a sales rep. LOL Are they expensive? Heck yes but there track record is outstanding if you change the oil and don't run them dry and crack a header.