Mercury 860’s
 

Has Mercury discontinued the 860’s? Seemed like a good alternative to the turbo motors with a better price point and 2 year warranty . Also the looked like they held up well on the offshore circuit

It was not listed with the other engines last time I checked.

On many hulls, they were a bit lacking in the midrange due to the lack of forced aspiration.

Problem with that engine is "I believe" when it comes time for a refresh it needs to go back to Merc. Get ready to dish out some coin.

not really a problem when it can go 500 hours before a refresh

Refresh every 300 hours. By far the longest of the QC4V engines.

Markus,

I've always wondered.... So, the 860 is essentially, say, an 1100, without the turbos and any specifics for the turbos?

Thanks. Brad.

they werent overly popular because of the rpm range and, go figure, cost over a 700.
i think we can still order one but its not listed on the racing consumer site.

Yes.

No kidding and with a tune the 700 is just as much with more TQ, and can be rebuilt by any number of people. They don't have the cool factor though :cool:

They were/are closer to 800s. Probably should've been marketed as such. There's actually a yellow fountain in the classifieds with these "800s" in it.

Cool motors for sure. But expensive from the get go and then you're not getting parts anywhere other than mother merc. So when you can put a whipple on a 525 or work a 600 or 700 a bit...

what does an 860 cost?

I think they were/are right around 100k

They're no longer available from what I've heard. No loss imo, as they didn't have the performance to justify the cost. I'm hoping Mercury releases a new engine in the next few years that bridges the large gap between the current 700sci and the 1100 QC4V. I'd love to see something like a GM based 540/557/588 big block with one of the new high efficiency large Whipple/EFI setups. The aftermarket engine builders seem to be building these combinations that are reliably putting out real HP numbers in the 1,000-1,050 range on 91 octane pump gas. The way that Mercury underrates their motors, they could offer this setup as a 950 to keep it from competing with the 1100 and give us guys that don't want the maintenance and cost associated with the QC4V motors something to repower with from our 700sci's. I think they'd also be a big hit with the OEMs, especially with insurance companies tightening up on big power builds.

I highly doubt they come out with anything new that isn’t based on their design/parts. If they were to bridge the gap which I doubt they will, my money’s on it’ll be qc4v based, little more power than the “860s”, so then higher priced, shorter maintenance intervals, and shorter warranty.

1100 s go 300 i would have to think na would go longer

I agree. I’ve always thought the 860 could have a really long service interval. What wears out?

Don't know, but I am quite sure I saw 300 hours in a table somewhere.

It does generate recurring revenue for Mercury. From an investor perspective, that is a good thing.

I bet the margins on the QCV4 engines, parts and service are very good. There should be plenty of room for lower priced engines if Mercury so desires. However, competing with off-brand engine builders is not where Mercury wants to go.

I doubt Mercury is doing any more development on I/O performance based motors. Lots of engineering and development cost for a VERY tiny market.

With the outboards they can be used on whatever and you want more power bolt another on. Just my opinion.

They do not desire for a lower priced engine.

I saw some people asking about longevity and what goes on with QC4V motors, and thought I’d shed some light. I am in no way a pro, but I too found lots of misinformation and lack of information before I bought an 1100 boat.

In the real world, if you take care of your equipment, people are regularly getting 400-450+ out of maintained 1100s. The ones that die an early death tend to be exclusively over heat and bad fuel related.

I’m told due to timing chain noise, Mercury built these motors with no knock sensor. A tank of bad fuel and you’ve got a problem.

Another issue that plagues these motors is cracking turbine housings. This is akin to a cracked CMI header on an N/A motor. There are some things you can do in ownership to extend the life of these, and obviously replacing these when they fail is key.

The factors that tend to lead these to rebuild are two main ones in my opinion. Oil consumption and valve lash. Rings can wear to a point that oil consumption is no longer reasonable. The second comes when valves have “tuliped” to a point where proper valve lash can no longer be achieved.

These motors were intimidating first… but once you’re around them they’re the closest thing to an outboard turned sideways you’ll ever find. I would never own another big power boat without QC4Vs

Not that I am even close to being in the market but I think the issue most have is Mercury is the only source for parts for the motors.

Yeah but they might have sold more if they said they ran 500,600, 1k hours?

Those hours from a 1100hp 1100++lb ft engine???

860

Oh ok….

Those hours from a 800hp 800lb ft engine?

I've seen a few data points that indicates the catalytic convertor requirement on I/O engines and not outboards have also created an outboard craze.

These new large center consoles with 5+ outboards are ridiculous.

Likely a lot of the maintenance re-fresh times for Merc perf I/Os are based on valvetrain needs.

If they don't create a better option they'll price themselves out of a market, and reduce sales/buyers with a shrinking boating community.

Likely far less people with the desire/knowledge/facilities to work on their own boats these days.

So, the 450 and 500 OB's are No Catalytic converters? Did not know that. Wonder why they get away with it?

Do any outboard engines have cat converters?

there are outboard engines for that