502 Mag or 496 HO
 

Looking at buying a new boat witch way should I go?

I sure like my 496 mag HO's .. they make more torque and hp than the 502's did. alot of other nice features too. like smartcraft if your into that. not to mention how easy it is to remove the water from the engines for those of us who are in the land of cold winters. there are plenty of people out there making aftermarket hp add-ons too. overall newer=better

Don

496 HO is the way to go if they aren't/gonna be blue motors.

496HO!!

I recently re-powered and had to go through the exact same decision... There was a very big difference in cost between the 502 and the 496 which certinly helped in the decision making process.. the 496 is a much newer engine and though delivers lots of power and torque. its computer and its newness really limits its ability to be tricked out at any reasonable cost. If you are looking for a drop in turn key engine that you don't intend to play with this is an excellent choice. The 502 has been around for a long time thus there is a ton of aftermarket products available for it, most of which don't require a computer to be re-calibrated and as many will attest to its well proven to take a lick'n and keep on tick'n...
I think you have to great choices.. and it really comes down to how you are going to run your boat and what you want to do down the road.... good Luck!

502's are slowly becoming dinosaurs and new "trinkets" are coming out faster than you can spit for the 496 because it's the future for this HP range....

I was looking at supercharging the motors in the future. Price really isn't the concur because the motors are the same price. I heard the 496 HO's did'nt have forged pistons if that's true the 502 would work better for future upgrades.

I saw a "Tech" article in one of the boating mags not too long ago , and the gent giving the responses answered a question with the 496"mag" didn't have forged pistons but that was a feel good factor. It's tolerances for moderate upgrades was there. The HO on the other hand does in fact have forged pistons.

ttt