I am pretty sure I am repowering with a 496 HO. I have gotten several quotes. I live in MD and the best quotes I got are in FL. and NJ. The place in FL says free shipping and no sales tax. Sounds great. The place in NJ told me that if a Mercruiser engine is shipped out of it's territory, the warranty is void. They said if you pick up the motor than no problem with the warranty.

Does anybody know if that is true?

One more question. Does it have to be installed by a Merc certified shop? I was planning on just having it dropped in and aligned, then taking care of the rest myself.

It does not matter which Mercruiser Dealer it came from, it is warrantable. The dealer you buy it from will help you with that. If you would like to verify this, simply call Mercury Marine's general number, 1-414-929-5000, and ask for Mercruiser Warranty Registration. Ed

Ed is absolutely correct, the warranty is not a problem as long as any failures are not caused by the installation. To put it mildly Mercury does not like their dealers shipping engines, but from a practical standpoint you as the consumer might find it hard to get a local dealer to perform warranty work if you did not buy it from them. Just make sure whoever you buy it from will really get it registered. And also make sure that all the components you expect are included (flywheel housing, coupler come to mind)

Might want to give Art Lilly a call, I think is is still a Merc dealer. His shop is about a mile from my house and he does first rate work.

-Greg

I bought 2 of these and repowered my 1986 32 baja and they run good, had 2 waranty items and had no problem with the repair shop, water temp sensor and water psi sensor

You might want to get a quote from Lance at Victory Marine in Texas, he has some good prices on new takeout 496's.
Raylar