I spoke with Tyler Crockett today about the 496 upgrades he is working on. It looks like there is alot of potential with these motors. He mentioned 600 hp naturally aspirated at around 5100-5250 rpm. Although I'm only looking for 500-550 hp I was concerned with the cast crank since I have the 496Mag(375hp). He led me to believe that all 496's currently being built use the same crank and the only difference was basicly the camshaft. I didn't think this was the case. Anyway, am I pushing my luck by not touching the lower end? Tyler didn't seem to think so particularly since I am looking for 500-550 hp. What do you guys think?

Tyler knows

I forget which mag it was, HotBoat/Powerboat, bu tin the tech section there's been a lot of discussion concerning the 496 models and the crankshaft durability of one with forged and one without (nwer models unknown). The gist of most the responses were the cast version could hold up to the task and that the forged hoopla was just a security feel good issue. I'm guessing that's with HP upgrades not too drastic....

Both the 496 Mag and HO have the same cranks...Go the the Merc web site and pull up the specs

I don't know this to be fact, but I was told that the early 496HO's had forged cranks and the 496mags had cast cranks. This supposedly was changed in later models because the cast crank was not an issue at 425hp.

Again, this was just what I was told. Does anyone know for sure or otherwise?