I’m gonna wait for the 3rd identical thread to chime in technically again.

Lol. I sense skepticism. Would it help if i said Im an old man and would be quite happy with a 70 mph boat to take the Granchilrens for rides?

If that's the case, get stock 496ho's. ​​​​​​​

lol

​​​​​​​That is my preference. Unfortunately opportunities to do so are few and far between.

I had a 2003 496 HO with a complete raylar package installed. The stock motor was swapped at 50 hrs in 2003 with the raylar 496. When this swap was done you do a exchange with raylar for a complete ready to drop in package. The boat is still around on our lake a running as good as ever. Just routine maintenance done every year on it. It's around 700ish hrs on it last time I saw the owner.

1. If the boat is still available in this market there might be something wrong with it.
2. I have a set of them, they run very well. Once the original owner replaced everything (specifically forged pistons) they have very similar characteristics as Mercury 525's - they way they run are very reliable assuming the company who built them did it correctly. The cam is basically the same as the 525 and it yields roughly the same power and torque as well as the way they sound.

Don't they require premium fuel?

The one I had ran always had 87 ran through it and still does.

Depends on what tune Whipple puts in the ECU.