It's all good, Eddie. I know you are nor argumentative or a smart ass. Your rates are also very fair. I still can't find my top end service receipt but dig up some paper work. My top end was serviced around 350 hours. I saved some labor by pulling the headers. My mechanic did a leak-down test, inspection of valves with a remote camera, replaced springs, keepers and retainers. Rockers were good. Heads were never removed. I do have cometic gaskets. My engine has been trouble free so I requested stock spec springs. A lot of my opinion that a pleasure boat can go longer than a race boat is due to what I found when I hooked up my Rinda scanner. While I thought I was running my engine hard it turned out that at 386 hours only 42 hours were over 3,500 RPM! 161 hours at 0-749 rpm. I was amazed at how those idle hours add up! I did manage to get it over 5,500 rpm for 1 hour :). That's my story. I hope she keeps humming along for a few more years before it needs a full rebuild. Do you agree that a full rebuild is due at 500 hours? What if most of those hours are at lower rpm like mine?

Since we're talking 525's and Mr. Young is following along..... I fell victim to a CMI header leak and had to have my 525 rebuilt last winter. I gingerly broke her In and was told I could drive it like I stole it now.
That being said, I wish I had stole it and not have so much money tied up in the damn thing. I cant leave well enough alone and would like more power. Do the whipple kits dramatically affect the longevity of
the 525? I am strictly a lake boater and have an XR that I will baby.
Michael

If you keep the boost down you should be fine, Dustin Whipple told a friend of mine that if he put 12 lbs of boost to it that it may blow up, he did do the 12 lbs a few times, and when the engines were pulled apart some of the pistons were cracked. This was a stock 525 with a 3.3 whipple custom tune, running XR's with Imco lowers

I hope it keeps humming along for you as well. Your hours are pretty normal. We generally see close to half of the total hours at idle. That's normal for the average boater. And yes, I do agree with the 500 hour rebuild. You can go up to about 550 hours, but I wouldn't really go any more. We have done tons of them right in that range and they are all due. Cylinders are starting to egg shape, piston scuffing, etc. You have a later engine so it had a few upgrades over the earlier ones. They got better with each year. Each year they made a few changes to the problem items. The old throw away high pressure fuel filter on the rear of the engine would leak. They made an aluminum billet filter housing. They made a billet oil filter housing with much larger oil lines. They also put a drain in it.(which is really nice with an upside down filter). They moved the coils and electronics around, making the engine easier to work on.They eliminated the oil bypass valve and put a plug in it. They changed the rod bolts to ARP 2000 from 8740's. What just kills me is they didn't address the biggest failure point. We get more 525's with valve train issues then anything else. They are still using the same springs that they did on day one. The other failure point is the rod bolts. We have seen several dozen with rod bolt failures. Changing to the ARP 2000 bolts will stop that. They realized that it was an issue and fixed it. Why not the springs? I just don't get it.
All in all, it's a great engine. It should be though. At the end of the day, it's a 550 hp 502 with aluminum heads. Not exactly brain surgery.
Thanks for the conversation Third.
Eddie

That is the only upgrade I really recommend doing to the 525. With that said, we have built up a few of them, but only because they broke. They all broke a rod bolt and tore up the entire bottom end. Everything needed to be replaced and the price is the same for a 4" or 4 1/4"crank. Rod and piston prices are the same as well. So, it made sense to make them 540's, 547's, etc. It wouldn't make sense to cannibalize a good running engine to stroke it. That engine is too valuable in stock trim. You would be better off selling it and starting over.

The Whipple is an excellent upgrade. I would guess that we have done close to 20 of them. They make 750-775 hp. Dustin has the tune dead on the money. We have checked each of them in the boat with a wideband O2 sensor and they are spot on across the board. We have not had one failure on any of them yet. The oldest one has north of 400 hours on it now. It will not shorten the life span of the engine, unless you drive it like a complete idiot. The engine will still need to be freshened at around 500 hours with or without the Whipple.

You may ask "how does it not shorten it's lifespan when upping the power by 200 hp"? The biggest failure point and cause of most issues in a BBC is the valvetrain. We aren't changing anything in the valvetrain to make the power. It has the same cam, etc. Now, I WILL NOT install a Whipple on a 525 without first freshening up the heads. That is a MUST. We will be turning more rpm than stock and the stock springs can't handle it. We are actually making the valvetrain better then it was. So, once the valvetrain can handle it, there is no reason that it won't live. Typically, the only issues you ever see in the bottom end of an engine are do to assembly errors or parts choices. With good parts and good assembly, a BBC bottom end will far outlive the valvetrain.

If you are on the fence about doing it, go for it. You will not regret it. It is a FANTASTIC upgrade to that engine. Well worth the money. Speaking of, give me a shout if you decide to do it and I'll give you the best price on a Whipple anywhere. We can obviously do the install as well, or help you do it if you want to tackle it. The one other good thing is that you can always take it right back off if you want to sell the boat. You can list the Whipple for sale and sell it before the end of the day. I have a list of guys that are looking for used Whipples so I could move it in an hour or so.

Let me know if you have any further questions about it. I'll do my best to answer them. Or, you can call me anytime at 615-216-7449.
Eddie

That sounds very reasonable..

Boston (north shore)/New England shop for 525 EFIs rebuild?
 

Can anyone direct me to a Boston (north shore) area shop that can do a rebuild on 525 EFIs?

abt in holliston or mike at malden machine.

if it was me, I would have someone pull it and send to Eddie Young at Young Performance in Tennessee.

Padraig

It’s a 525, not a 1075. Theres nothing complicated about it. Any good reputable shop can handle it.
I recently had a 1075 apart for inspection that abt rebuilt about 150 hours ago, it’s perfect inside, not a mark on the bearings. They did a great job with it.