Mercury Racing To Bring Back 700 SCi Engine
 

Officially back by popular demand, https://speedonthewater.com/in-the-n...700-sci-engine.

I wish they would bring back the 525 !!!!!!

Does that mean the NXT is coming back as well or all 700's will be paired with a trans/M6?

The return of the Donzi ZRC and brand new 700's with 6's, now we're talking !!!

Odd they didn't give it a 50 HP bump or something to make it "special"

Was the 860 a flop or just too expensive? Odd they mentioned it at a Nortech even when Nortech is primarily an OB builder these days. I would have thought Cig would have gotten the chance to re-introduce the new motor.

Second that. Not that I'm in need right now. Have mine out and completely torn down right now for a freshening. Started as the top end deal but decided to take them all the way since they were out. 12 years of flawless service, oil, filters and one plug change, they show no problems internally. These have got to be the top of Merc Racing's best ever list, these have been worth every penny.

with better valve train components

Besides the lack of headers, what’s wrong with the 520? What about the 540?

Exhaust systems with cat converters and such.

Someone know the Donald and have'm call the EPA :)

I guess these would blow up stock bravos? Are they like 525 fwc?

zzzzzzz.....boring! Makes no sense to me to order a badazz offshore boat with the same ol 700s they have had forever. Yeah there are some size boats where 700s are honestly a good match but also a bunch that work well with the 565 (how is that not better than the 525 anyways?) and lots of boats that are WAY underpowered with only 700s. Come on at least update them to 760s or something! Even funnier is the MAJORITY of 700's are turned up anyways! I get that the 860's are very expensive but they are some BADAZZ engines and if you are building a sweet boat you can afford a couple 860s. Maybe lower the price on the 860's, Twin turbo the 700 instead of supercharge, something, anything besides the exact same 700........

Funny that blown 700's in a boat is boring now.:),,,,,, desn't matter not a game I am in.

Either way I can see why people may choose the 700 over the 860, 860 is WIDE being a OVC motor, after warranty easy to turn up the 700's. Then the one that I think would be a big one, when rebuild time comes along is there anyone besides Mercury that is doing the OHC motors?
People like competition in the market, if your only choice is Merc,,,,,,,,,,,

Mine are down for normal service now and I have decided to have them completely redone. I will tell you that in 12 years of ownership of these engines I could not be any more pleased with what I am seeing.

Not one failure with any single component in either engine. Not a single Valve train failure. Yes the valve job was worn, needed to be freshened, but not failed. Only sign of wear was a couple of the Crane rockers were showing some side to side wear in the trunnion area, like a couple out of 32. Blame Merc Racing for that. They should have used the Crowers, been done with it, threw a couple bucks on the tag to start with. I have done just that, did the same with my HP 500's.

I have watched close friends go from builder to builder over the years in search of the elusive horsepower, only to end up on the dock broke on a perfect Saturday in boating season. Merc Racing has to live with what they build, has to own what they build, they do one hell of a job and produce one hell of a product. In my opinion.

People I have 12 years of ownership with these engines, they have run flawlessly, run strong all the time I have owned them, never gave me a moment of grief. These Biotches are the tits when you come to Hot Rod motors.

R.E. thats pretty rare for these engines, yours are the exception, 12 years and how many hours on the engines ?? its been well documented over the years of failures, curious to know how many hours you have on them over 5k rpms ? if it was brought back ( which I dont think it will ) they need to do away with the proprietary bolt pattern on the exhaust flange.

How many hours on your 525's? All OEM oils, filters, etc?

If your question is for me.

Valvoline VR-1 Racing 25-50, Merc Racing filters every 25Hours give or take a bit. Gear lube was always the Aimsoil in the original drives, new drives are on the new and latest version Merc Racing due to warranty. I have been a fan of the VR-1 for almost 30 years, have never had an oil based issue with many different boats. Those that have been opened up were clean and showed very little wear.

Aint that a kick right between the wheels.....Mercury strikes again.

Our boat ran pretty good with the 625 Ilmor power; when we wounded one I had them freshened and breathed on Alexi @ by BoostPower. Then we had small issues with the drives (Bravo) - nothing catastrophic but now it's a trust issue - so, since we really like the boat, we decided to re-power and add amenities. We use her like a "cruiser with a little bark" and decided the "musts" included reliability and local warranty & serviceability. We originally intended to do Merc 600s with a Whipple upgrade and M6 drives. We found out we couldn't get the 6 with the 600s. Merc was discontinuing the 700 so we pulled the trigger on 860s because they were the "smallest" power available with the M6.

I'd like to think we'd make the same decision now because we have a very sanitary engine bay and blower belt dust is a PITA...but it would've been nice to have had the option to save some $$'s and Whipple the 700s later.

I'll post up a real world review on the 860s when we get her back from surgery; target date was "before it gets warm here in MI" so based on the current weather we're experiencing I figure we don't need her home until sometime in July ( we had a foot of snow a couple weeks ago and had flurries again this morning lol ).

cheers

d

That's so badass man! Very excited for you. Looking forward to seeing you in the water soon. It would be cool if you started a build thread about your boat from the beginning! We need more good interesting content on this forum. People will really enjoy reading about something different and unique.

Thanks.

We've got reservations up there this summer but I'm not exactly sure when..early August I believe I'll make sure to drop you a line if we don't make it before then...

I'll post the whole "down the rabbit hole" adventure one of these days...it would make a great winter story.

On the other hand, it looked a lot like winter here yesterday morning with the flurries we had.

Be careful what you wish for though, I am incapable of telling a short story....

I hate to pour salt on a Slippery" wound but I understand the new 700's will have Whipples on them.

LOL.

Of course they do...and with their ECU upgrade able to make a reliable 850 + HP, and 860s with factory hair dryers making a reliable 1100HP , Merc will no doubt drop the 860, making it a hardcore baller collectors item.

So, in the immortal words of my hero, Carl Spackler, "I've got that going for me".

LOL - So now you've received total consciousness about Mercury!.

Yes, painfully achieved but I'm drinking my way through it.

"Monopoly is, what "M" stands for"

- Yoda

So whats the platform of this new engine ?? 8.2 502 ... I dig Whipples

What kind of power did Alexi get you when he upgraded your Ilmors? Happy with the results? What boat are the 860's going in to?

I worry about the 860 in anything heavy. The 42 Tiger "Hall's A$$" has been all over Instagram screaming at 6k RPM's and 87 MPH. That sucks! It sounds incredible then you see the speed. I love the sound of RPM, but if I want to take a nice cruise at 70MPH, I don't want to hear 5000RPM.

I'd have to dig up the info, but I believe they were around 780 @ 6100 on the dyno.

It would have been easy to step them up over 800 hp, but we put them in the boat set up at 725 @ 6100 because we can't always get premium fuel and we aren't looking for every last mph. We literally use the boat like a motorhome; we've got more cup holders than a minivan and a couple years ago we had 14 of us in the boat and ran mid 70s from Long Beach to Catalina Island.

Yes, we're very happy with everything Alexi has done for us, I can't say enough good about BoostPower. We also have a 24 Schiada with a 600 cid compound blower motor of his. That motor is nothing short of amazing; pulls like a freight train with excellent dock manners. The only reason we went Merc instead of Boostpower with the re-power on our big boat was I wanted the 6 drive, fly by wire, and local service - we're in MI and Alexi is on the other coast.

The 860s replaced the Ilmors in a 43 Schiada. We sent her back to Lee at Schiada for a complete refit / update ; new power, drives, electronics, pump out head, A/C, etc. There is nothing "wrong" with the Ilmor's - Alexi has them for sale - but we wanted the big drives and all the cool new electronic stuff.

The boat ran very well with the Ilmors which were also rpm motors, the 860s should be more of a good thing without the blower belt dust. She's a big 43 (9'6" beam, 12' of cockpit, and tall) but she's also light for a 43; she won't win many drag races, but she also won't be a slouch & if we want a hot rod we've got the 24.

cheers