My buddy has a 95 cobalt 232 witha 502 merc about 280 hours, wants to do the heads this offseason, we live in the pnw so where in the Seattle area is a good place to drop them off for a reliable upgrade overhaul done right. Thanks all!
mine aren't much behind so where do people go and who do they trust to do their work over on the wet side?

502 mag?

With 280 hrs on a 502 mag, I wouldn't waste the time or money.
Especially not without doing at least a leakdown test to determine if there is even an issue.

Yes they are both mags , it has been my understanding that at 250ish you're playing with fire. No?

I might add my friend is an airline pilot, and dammed particular about preventative maintenance.

No, not even close for 502mags. I wouldn't worry about touching them until at least 500-700hrs. The cams are very mild and you shouldn't need to.
I have almost 600hrs on my 502mpi's and have a few friends with 1000+ on them and they've never been touched.

The 250ish hours top ends is for HP500's. A lot more cam and a lot harder on the valve train.

Good to know , thank you.

I agree, waste of time for a stock 502, I wouldn't even think about it until 500hrs at least.

Generally if you guys have done your normal maintenance you should be good to go for many years. However being in Seattle if you do your boating in the Ocean
then you have extra concerns. Exhaust/riser gaskets, corrosion in the heads and block, and a restricted water intake fitting can be a time bomb for you.

If you just want to get a little more speed then a top end upgrade can get you an easy 120HP. There are many 502 upgrade threads here as well as the famous
502 EFI upgrades articles from Hot Boat. I have them and they are a great read.

Also the "Crockett kit" is a proven winner.(https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tyler...03730003027995). I can't find Tyler's website.

Since you guys are in the PNW OSO's area expert is Alex Haxby(http://www.haxbyspeed.com/). He can do anything you want done to your 502's.

A few searches and you will have days of "502 upgrade" threads to research.

My Cobalt 233's 502 MPI has 482 hours and runs better than the day it was built. I made a few "safety" upgrades for longevity.

Yeah haxby is on my short list of people to visit, but we are in central Washington in the desert about 5 or 6 hours away. No salt in our motors.
I'd love another 100 horses!