Nice write-up, great camera work! IMHO, you've got the best of both worlds...a 'black' engine with 'blue' engine performance but with reduced Maintenance intervals.

Unfortunately I had a similar experience as Knot and Concept. After the phone call I thought nah I’m good here. Worked out great though. Sold the 496 to a good guy and bought a whippled 525.

I talked to Larry once myself, tossed his number in the trash right after that

Sounds like Larry needs to hire a "PR person" and he should stick to turning wrenches. This has been on my mind for a while, is the Merc 496 a complete stand alone engine? Different block, heads, intake, exhaust etc? Wtf would you do that when everyone else just bores and strokes a 454 and you have unlimited resources and more power than Merc's 496? Why would you buy a Merc 496 knowing the restrictions? Not trying to hijack the thread. I too am looking forward to your final numbers when you get it dialed in.

XX

Yeah I had been checking in on the Dana exhausts each month over the last winter as they were expected to go into production (on the upgraded version) at any moment. By the time I was ready to drop in the motor they had not been manufactured yet, so I modified my stock exhaust to run dry to the transom to prevent reversion. Hopefully the Dana set up can be used without reversion problems with Raylar's big cam.

Keep in mind the people complaining about Raylar are not customers and didn't own Raylar products. I'm not trying to sell Raylar, just stating my experience. I'm sure when and if Larry needs the money he'll then entertain every yahoo on the internet asking questions about a boat and motor they don't even own. I beat Larry up for 11 months with phone calls and emails, so I can assure you Larry had my back as a customer.

As far as reliability of the components, I have 50hrs on the motor so we'll see!

As far as the 496, yes it is not just a stroked 454. It is a separate modern version of the Chevy big block motor.

https://chevytrucks.org/chevy-8-1-vo...-engine-guide/

wrong, I called with credit card in hand ready to order 2 cams and ask him if he can also recalibrate my ECUs, half way through the conversation I decided I didn't want to do business with him,

glad you had a better experience

Nice build!!!! With a 200hp increase, you should need to go up about 4" in prop pitch

I tried to become a customer. He made it such that I didn't become one.