New 496 aluminum heads
 

Just returned from the Miami show. Show and boats were awesome. Our new BIGPOWER aluminum head for the 496 engine was on display at the Flagship booth. If you want to checkout the new head and our other parts check out our website @raylarengine.com and let me hear from you.
Thanks,
Raylar

Raylar, this is great news!!! By the looks of your web site, you are doing a lot of R&D on the 496's. What type of "real world" power do you foresee with a matched package of your cam, intake and heads? Currently the 496 requires 87 octane gas. Are you saying with your alluminum head at 10:1 that 87 octane is still safe?

Lastly, the big question, what about ECU programming? Is the customer on his own or are you working something out with Merc or Whipple?

Never-the-less, congrats on your product release. It is really nice to see the aftermarket coming around on the 496's.

ccarloss:
Thanks for the feedback. We are just now in dyno trials on the new heads and we are seeing numbers at about 475HP with no changes in cam or ECM. We are going to change injector sizes and up the fuel pressure slightly next and we feel we will see about 500 to 525HP with that change. We believe our special cam profile will raise this number to about 550hp+ without any reprograming. The reason everybody has been talking reprograming is that all changes to this motor so far have been with supercharging. This raises the dynamic compression to well over 20 to 1. This in turn with the old heads caused major detonation so the supercharger people have been retarding the timing and richening the fuel mixture in an attempt to stop the detonation under boost conditions. The truth is the Motorola ECM that Mercury uses for the motor has a very simple fuel and spark curve that is operated by the MAP sensor and the throttle position sensor with input from the coolant temperature sensor. Because we have raised the compression only to 10 to1 in a cooler running aluminum head with a quickburn chamber, the motor does not really see any affects of the increased compression like an iron head would. Hence the timing can be most likely
left alone and the added fuel delivered by bigger injectors running on the factory fuel curve pulse widths with more fuel system pressure will be enough to increase the power levels without any reprogramming. of the ECM. Remember the raise in compression alone is good for about 40-50 HP and the quick clean burn of our new combustion chamber coupled with a greater air flow with more velocity should develop more power out of the motor without retarding spark and changing the factory ECM fuel curves. We believe that a better combustion chamber making big power needs less timing. Only time will tell, but we are in new territory where no one including Mercury or GM has gone before!They never had heads like these to go there, they are really that damn good! We are dynoing on 87 octane fuel now and we are not seeing any detonation.
I will keep everyone posted!
Thanks
Raylar;)

Raylar,
Great to see your new web site up and running. I look forward to the release of your all of your new products and the development of aftermarket options for us to consider. Please keep us posted of your progress.

Raylar,
Thanks for your detailed response. These details help us to understand more and more about our engine and your developments. Sounds like you are on top of this with a creative approach.

Wouldn't it be less costly to reprogram the ECU than the expense of injectors and programmable fuel regulator?

Keep us posted on the progress.

Rick

rv:
Wish reprogramming the Mercury ECU was easier, but the Motorola unit Mercury is using is theirs and theirs alone. The only way reprogramming will be possible is to wait till the warranty is up, void the warranty or pay big licensing fees to Mercury which they don't appear to be excited about. They are the big boys and they are controlling the market right now! We will keep working on this issue and will hopefully have a better solution soon. Nothing is impossible it just takes better negotiations! Obviously Merc knows that eventually a lot of 496 owners will want to up their performance, just as Mercury has done with the old 502 engines. Hopefully Merc will take advantage of the 496 aftermarket enhancements for the 496 just as they have with the 502 pieces. Everything we are doing is so new that Merc really isn't up to speed yet. Remembering that the big auto manufacturers lost their legal challange with SEMA on vehicle reprogramming may help. Thanks for the positive feedback.
Raylar;)

Thanks for the detailed response Raylar. It's exciting to hear about the new advancements. Please keep us informed of your testing and developments.

Considering a 32 Sunsation with 496 mags (375 hp). Is this engine also a candidate for your aluminum heads and other mods? With a cam change? Would ECU also have to be changed?

Thanks!

Ontheh20
We are finishing dyno testing on various combinations right now. We have already seen 500HP with the 496ho package with our heads only with just fuel pressure and injector increases and no ECM changes. On the385hp mag with the heads and our new cam will be in the next runs. We are pretty sure that with the 385HP mag ecm programing, our new heads and just the new 1.8 ratio roller rockers and some fuel pressure increases we should see at least 450hp, maybe more. The engine loves the new heads, timing and fuel curves don't look like their going to be an issue until we take the 420HP mag over 550HP. We are planning a talk with Mercury about reprogramming issues and we will keep everyone informed of our progress. We feel that these parts will also be a big benefit to Mercury when they are ready to upgrade their use of the 496 package. Heck, a longer life 575HP-600HP unblown EFI 496 package is good for the whole industry and Mercury already uses AS&M,Brodix and Edelbrock and Merlin parts in their engine packages now.
Thanks for the questions!
Raylar

I am very interested in what you are doing. Do you have a time table for the heads and would you even want to try to guess to price for the heads, injecters and whatever else is needed for that kit without the cam change? The nearest thousand is close enough.