i remember seeing a few posts on here about people having pretty good results with the Dana exhaust on 496's

i was thinking the same thing, what are good improvements to make to the 496 ho?

Sell it and get Eddie Young to build you a 650








There is the Raylar 103 kit, but the cast internals are not really up for the job. When you start to mod the 496's, the internals has to be upgraded as well for good reliable power.

Nearly 10 years of hard running on my 2 sets of KEs and they are still basically like new. Best marine pipe going unless you are in heavy salt and don't flush.

i've seen some dyno results,and the KE really perform good...the others give you power at high rpm mostly

Stock Merc 496? If so, save your money. The factory manifolds work very well for the application and are durable. A bud installed the CMI headers and saw zero gain in performance.

+1.

Best exhaust for a stock 496 HO? Stock aluminum manifolds. The ports are huge and capable of flowing more than the engine can give them.

Couldn't agree more. If you feel compelled, pull the manifolds off and do some minor port work on the holes and put it back on.

I think the stock 496 exhaust kit is one of the very best "stock" exhaust systems out there. It flows well compared to most (all) other Merc exhausts, the riser is stainless so it will be around forever nearly & it's a dry joint so you won't see any of the constant leaks and failing gaskets unless you neglect it.

On a stock 496, there is not a kit out there that will increase the speed of your boat solely on its own. Anyone who makes that claim is not being forth right in my opinion..

If you can not turn a bigger prop or turn your existing prop faster you are wasting your money. An exhaust upgrade on its own with the 496 will not allow for either of the two scenarios.

Better off to lab the heck out of the next size up prop and that's as good as it gets and it's usually under a thousand bucks to do so.