Article on Volvo
 

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I was at the Mercury dealer meeting in September and took a ride on a boat with the new 100% Mercury built 4.5L V6. It was night and day smoother, quieter and more powerful than the old GM based 4.3. Their intention was to replace the GM 5.0L and they succeeded nicely.

I will not be at all surprised if they introduce a V8 version in Miami. Are they targeting the hi-performance market? Not at all but for a bread and butter boat builder it will be more than fine.

Thanks Myturn read that one already and its mainly about the 4.3 V-6 direct injection that I mentioned from Volvo. The Volvo 240 hp direct injection will beat the Mercruiser 4.5 L in a drag race. The Volvo direct injection V-6 was in a 21 ft Regal with a tower and the Merc was in a entry level Bayliner. If someone asked me what engine was in the 21 foot Regal after driving it, I would have said a 350 HO mag. I could not believe the acceleration of the direct injected Volvo GM - V-6. Also 51 mph in a 21 foot boat with a tower and 4 of us.

The Merc 4.5L V-6 is quieter because the intake / throttle body is turned 180 degrees facing the stern of the boat plus a few other reasons. I drove both new engines and both are big improvements over the old 4.3 L from the 80's design. the Volvo V-6 looks to be much harder to work on and Merc V-6 was made more user friendly for working on the whole motor. just saying. I always look at that end of it to. At sometime frame in 2015, I am sure that I will be working on both, hopefully just checks and maintenance.

I wrote in another thread, more detailed info about these 2 motors.

I've had LS 450 cubes twins for close to seven years in my cat 130 hours on them awesome package after market blocks dry sumped oiling no problem fuel consumption is awesome neet motor all around

back ok page three there was a post about lt-1's being used. Are you sure it is lt-1?? Seems behind the curve when corvettes stopped using them in 96 and f bodies stopped in 97.

It's confusing, they are new engines and recycled the name.

Yes, but a lot of new technology!

The merc guy at the NY boat show said merc is sticking to BBC motors built by Dart for there 400ish hp group. Dart built the new V6 and is going to expand into the V8 models as well. Said the new aluminum chevy V6 did not hold up so they built their own. Also The 520 is a 523 Dart BBC with 496HO exhaust so no more CMI issues. He also said Merc tried to buy the tooling for the 496 from GM when they canned it but could not.