I'm not sure what you were reading. I'd never drop 2.5's on the AMT. You'll never have a balance issue and the 300x motors you can run hard as hell allday long and they will still be smoothe at the dock.

You seem to be comparing "built" 2.5's to stock 300x motors....


.....and a "DRAG" motor wouldn't last long on the runs you'll want to do in an AMT.

Good luck but read the post just above mine...."don't kid youself"

a drag motor makes about 335hp and is nothing more than a factory ported 2.5 with an a13 ECU calibrated for a Brucato SVS intake, 26cc heads, which require 110 octane race fuel and a 15" midsection. As far as power to weight ratio, acceleration and rough water handling it's no comparison....I currently have boats with 2.5s and 300s. If you're not a hardcore performance boater who is not going to go offshore and bang the throttles in 4-6 footers and want good top end and idle quality the 300xs won't disappoint. But...they won't hang with a drag motor anywhere. Just ask Charlie Tesauro. He has lightened and ported 280 blocks which put out about the same power as stock drag motors and he runs 126 mph. The fact that they are called "drag" motors means that the ECUs, especially the 2001 and newer units, are calibrated for acceleration. If you did want the most bang for the buck and don't mind mixing drag motors are the ticket. I would open up the heads to 30ccs in order to run av gas which is a loss of only 4 hp on Diamond Marine's dyno and either richen up the ECU to 1.03 or better yet get a Brucato PCU which improves idle quality. Charlie runs his motors a bit rich as well and he has had them for about 5 years and no problems that I know about.

.......and compression in the 180 range. It didn't sound like he wanted to do a rebuild every 50 hrs.

The 300's give great performance without all the BS of a high compression....race fuel...frequent rebuild 2.5 drags. Motors that spin 9500 RPM don't last like ones that spin under 6800 WOT.

Serious doesn't mean you have to be ready to race in the offshore circuit. There's also a sense of being practicle and turning the key every weekend.

Strap a stock 2.5 280 on the back of my Skater, and it won't out accelerate or out run a stock 300, on any day, of any week.

I know scream and fly would be a better place for this question.

But here goes, how much for a souped up rebuild ? and how long will they last at under
7k rpm ?

Curtis

RVR Tricks, which AMT are you thinking of buying? If you are comming from a big block boat either engine will be fine for you. You probably won't notice the difference between the two if you are new to Outboards. The Verrado motor probably won't be available to the public any time soon. Where are you going to be boating, how fast do you want to go, can you read a measuring cup, is 93 available where you boat, is there a Mercury OB mechanic near where you are? Both engines are great engines and the final performance numbers are very close between the two. I would think that 2.5 parts are alittle easier to come by though.

Curtis for a guy that used to spend more money on BEER for his team in one weekend than some people spent on racing why are you nickel and diming. If you are only going to turn it less than 7000 why would you need to "SOUP IT UP"? Just send your powerheads to Big John and let him rebuild them.

I want to go a little faster, without breaking down. I had to idle back to the dock 3 times last summer.

Idling with kids in the boat brings it to a whole new level, there is not enough beer in the world.

Curtis

Curtis what are you breaking?

Lowers, one almost came off, had it fixed.

The JA that fixed it left off the retaining ring, it broke again real good the next time.

Blew a powerhead, had it fixed by someone here in town "Big mistake" blew up after 1 hr.

Then sent it to the "lake" and had it fixed right.

Right now its running really good, we went from Ft lauderdale to Key west for the races no problems at all.

Cant really make up my mind what I want, I would really like a 400hp verado.

CM

Is this "400 horsepower Verado" going to happen, or are you all just hoping????? I would love to see it, but the price might be outta this world!!!

Go with the 300x's. The 2.5's are great but for realiability purposes, I can not see where you will go wrong with the 300x's.

400hp Verado, how much will that weight? I am assuming its still 4 stroke??