525 header issues?
 

what year did mercury racing correct the common header issues?

is it safe to say the issues are nonexistent past this year?

are there #'s or anything on the headers to tell the difference between the good and bad sets?

The issues have never been corrected with 525EFI headers.

really? so the cmi "gen-x" headers are having the same issues?

http://www.hardin-marine.com/c-1348-...t-systems.aspx you can use your cmi tailpipes

Yeah I did find the old threads on the hurricanes. They seem promising.

So are the gen-x not what CMI claims?

I swithced to Gen Xs and did not have issues. Best to call CMI and then Teague for fact finding.

According to mercury racing adding the corsa silent choice causes reversion because it changes the mixing point from 16" to around 8". This voids the warranty coverage for any reversion related issues.

What are the options if someone wants silent choice and no header issues?

I'm sure I will get attacked for this,but my 2004 382 Fastech with 525's has the original CMI's it left the factory with.Pressure tested them last year,and all is good. I am going to replace them this year with GEN X's,for simple fact I don't have problems, and don't want any. We replace water pumps,belt,and hoses. All water/cooling related parts before they fail,why not headers? They are not cheap,but new 525's aren't either. Watch the 2 you-tube videos CMI has out.Very informative.It's all about water flow,not so much pressure.Everything has a life span.My boat has 240 hours and 8 years on it. I think the headers held up well. I have silent choice as well,and use it quite often. I also boat in salt water.Boat is lift kept and flushed 10 minutes a side. One thing CMI talks about is not to raise rpm's above idle on flush.A standard garden hose usually doesn't have the proper flow to keep up with cooling the headers above idle.

Having cooling water flowing through the headers seems to help them last a long time.

Where did you see that?

There is a difference between the CMI headers and the Merc ones. Even though they look the same are made at CMI there is a very important difference. The Merc headers are not heat treated after production. This makes them more prone to cracking. You can thank Merc for being too cheap to have them made correctly and then charging you 3x the price for an inferior product!

did not see it! heard it with me own two ears from mercury racing on tuesday.

Good videos, thanks. I always get nervous flushing because even though I have decent city water pressure, the top port tube gets hot first. At least now I know why. Good informaton on the water pumps too.

Well lots of us are running it and the Mercury Racing service manual says it is good to 2,500 rpm only (I believe). If it voided the warranty I don't know why it would be in their shop manual. Maybe the person who told you that did not know better....

Mercury Racing told me not to use silent choice at all on a 525. My engine was out of warranty so they told me, it's your engine so you can do what you want..... I don't use it.

Why do boat manufactures install silent choice if Merc does not approve of it? Is this notice something new from Merc? Never read anything in Merc's operator manual with a new boat that stated not to use silent choice or we'll void your warranty. Can anyone scan and post this info bullentin or is this just hear-say?

the warranty is only one measly year. maybe mercury wants to give some guidelines for those who choose to run silent choice after the warranty period or maybe the service manual is referring to only the early years when mercury still used their original silent choice. i don't know...... bolting on or altering pretty much any component that is not a merc part will void the warranty. what i am hearing from some is with the state of the economy merc is tightening any and all loose ends that could potentially cost them money. they are much stricter on the factories then ever.

This is right from the 525 installation manual.

thanks

thanks a lot! do you happen to know what year this was printed?

this backs up my guess in my last post. they are basically saying "we don't recommend it, it will void warranty but if you do decide to do it this is how it should be done"

It doesn't say it will void the warranty, it says don't use it over 2,500 RPMs. It's great for idling around yacht clubs and such. The 525 doesn't use the same Y pipe as the 496 etc. It's more of a "Z" pipe that mixes the water further downstream. I had to pay about $1,000 each for mine when I swapped out the 496 for the 525.

If you carefully read the caution statement above this "silent choice" you can understand that Mercury does not sell or install these systems on their engines as delivered. This is done by the boat builder and hence the warranty can be voided by Merc quite easily if a problem occurs from water instrusion that "Mercury" deems as being caused by that usage.

What you should probably draw from this information is that using switchable thru the hub exhaust systems on high performance racing engines is "USE AT YOUR OWN RISK".

JMO

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

That page came from my 2005 353 installation manual, but the same paragraph exists in my Service Manual which is new and covers all the 525's. I disagree that it would void the warranty. Corsa, CMI and the boat manufacturers don't operate in a vacuum. Testing had to been done on these configurations otherwise Formula or whoever would be on the hook for a faulty installation and I don't see them taking on that liability.

It does not void the warranty. Ray, Mercury Racing does not install engines afaik. ;)

After rebuilding my 525's I was so concerned about the header problems I sold the boat before they had a chance of ruining my engines.

Maybe too drastic of move.

Well I see it like this. Mercury provides the warranty and if they tell me it voids the warranty for any reversion related issues then I have no other choice than to believe them. Call them and ask and report back. Thanks for the help everyone.

My Silent Choice automatically opens at 2000 rpm's. I believe the exhaust solenoids are somehow wired to the tach feeds.

Called again today and spoke with a different rep. He said if you buy a brand new boat with factory installed switchable exhaust mercury will not warranty the motor for any water ingestion/reversion related issues. The motor will still be covered otherwise

It dosen't matter. Try to get anything covered under warranty from Merc Racing, forget it. Even if your motor blows up after 1 hour, they will find a reason why it is your or somebody elses fault.:party-smiley-004:

have any of you had or heard of cmi header issues in a single engine, fresh water only, no captain choice application?

i have been told by a couple reputable high performance marine mechanics and many other people that the header problem is only in salt water and boats with staggered twin/triple boats where the forward engine has long pipes with not enough support and in rough water the pipes move a lot causing the inner header tubes to crack.

Ok, sorry but after holding in my comments for over a week - - - here I go. I lost 2 mtors to leaking headers on my last boat. Rebuilt both and sold the boat. My 700 boat I have now, all 4 headers leaked and 3 of the 4 pipes. Needless to say it cost me alot of cash to replace all of them and now because of the water leaking in the motors I had to have both the upper and lowers done. BTW, mercury does not offer larger pistons for the 700, They want you to buy the entire lower end. Uppers I can understand needed attention at 200+ hours, but lower as well? Thanks CMI...100K spent in headers, pipes, and rebuilds. It makes me sick to read the page in Powerboating in Paradise where CMI has a page where all the major boat manufacures and dealers talking how great a product CMI has. I am here to tell you - 100K out of my poket is far from GREAT. i almost lost my dinner reading that page. Ok, I am done, sorry to vent..

thanks mykalvballer and sorry to hear that. do you run in fresh, salt or brackish water? also are your motors staggered?

This is what I was told as well. What is baffling is the fact that CMI continues to do this as it's their name that seems to get dragged through the mud, not Mercury's.

Maybe Mercury Racing will speak for themselves?
 

It I remember Fred is a member here on OSO. Why doesn't someone here on OSO directly affected send him a PM and ask for Mercury Racings direct response. If not how about someone so affected put up a blog on their website blog page and see what happens??? Maybe even a direct written email to Fred. this is certainly a sad thing and when I read something like the post here from Mikalvballer it sort of makes my stomach sink. Very, Very, Very bad!

Alright guys here is the deal. I am looking at a 2005 boat with a single 525 efi. It has no choice exhaust but does have bolt on mufflers. It has only 100 fresh water hours. I will only run in fresh water. So all things considered in my previous posts, my questions are:

Should I be concerned?

If yes then do I put Hardin hurricanes or gen-x on?

I don't want to drill/tap the heads or stainless would be considered.

Like I said, I have been told the header issue does not pertain to single engine fresh water boats......

Buy it.

Done! Now what?

Does anyone actually have any proof of this? When I called CMI, they responded that the Merc specs were actually more stringent than their own. I don’t buy into the salt water issue either. I had Gil stainless risers that were used for twenty years in salt and still looked brand new. So do my CMI’s inside. Not one speck of corrosion. I do believe that stress induced by improper support and/or overheating is an issue.

You could pressure test them. Mine have not been a problem. 2007 engine.

I would pressure test them. You can even send them to CMI for inspection for not much money. The only thing is the bolt-on mufflers. Who knows how much back pressure they create. Reversion and failed headers are 2 different issues.