Ilmor 710's
08-20-2010, 07:18 PM
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Ilmor 710's
I have a 1999 35 fountain lightning with blower motors and Bravo drives with HP gimbals. Will the 710 Ilmors work with the bravos or do you need tranny's and different drives with these. I would like to get out of the blower motor world. Thanks
08-22-2010, 09:26 AM
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the ilmor engines are incredible. i service a set in an o.l . and whata pleasure. im sure yo can plug and play, with some changes obviously. but to give perspective, 40' o.l, ilmors, 6500 rpm, 115 mph. and idle like kittys.
08-22-2010, 11:23 PM
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There was a guy here on OSO who bought set of 625's V-10's for his 35 outlaw only to discover that they would not fit in the engine compartment. The V-10's are longer and they simply would not fit lenghtwise in his engine compartment.
Personally, I have a set of 625's in my 38 Fever and although the rigger did get them to fit it was only after an obscene rigging bill and literally months of delays by one of the premiere shops in the midwest. The Ilmors are a great product and I would recommend them in a heartbeat, but only in a boat that already had them installed. Switching to V-10's is not a plug and play exchange with GM blocks by any means. They had to reglass and re-cut my transom because the Ilmors sit higher in the boat. The motor mounts line up different. There is literally an 800 pound difference between a set of Merc 525's and a set of Ilmors - looks great in the ads but taking that much weight out of the back of your boat without offsetting it by removing weight from the front of the boat can totally throw off the center of gravity - not to mention that the weight difference totally throws off any X diminsion heights recommend from the factory. The back of my boat just sits higher in the water because there is less weight back there. I offset the change in CG by installing a set of Imco extension boxes to move to drives back to act as a pivot - not to mention the extra weight of the boxes themselves to help lesson the loss of weight.
The long and short of it, there is a heck of a lot more involved than just throwing a set of V-10's back there. Great engines and I love my set up now, but in hindsight it was not smart on my part to be the first person ever to have a set of Ilmors rigged in a 38 Fountain (or any Fountain for that matter). It cost way too much, took way too long, and it was all done on my dime. It would have been wise to let the factory figure all of this out on their dime and then buy one already set up. Live and learn. I've heard that the switch goes much smoother on cats but I have no experience with that.
Great engines but man was it ever a hassle on my boat. I have a rigging bill to prove it.
Personally, I have a set of 625's in my 38 Fever and although the rigger did get them to fit it was only after an obscene rigging bill and literally months of delays by one of the premiere shops in the midwest. The Ilmors are a great product and I would recommend them in a heartbeat, but only in a boat that already had them installed. Switching to V-10's is not a plug and play exchange with GM blocks by any means. They had to reglass and re-cut my transom because the Ilmors sit higher in the boat. The motor mounts line up different. There is literally an 800 pound difference between a set of Merc 525's and a set of Ilmors - looks great in the ads but taking that much weight out of the back of your boat without offsetting it by removing weight from the front of the boat can totally throw off the center of gravity - not to mention that the weight difference totally throws off any X diminsion heights recommend from the factory. The back of my boat just sits higher in the water because there is less weight back there. I offset the change in CG by installing a set of Imco extension boxes to move to drives back to act as a pivot - not to mention the extra weight of the boxes themselves to help lesson the loss of weight.
The long and short of it, there is a heck of a lot more involved than just throwing a set of V-10's back there. Great engines and I love my set up now, but in hindsight it was not smart on my part to be the first person ever to have a set of Ilmors rigged in a 38 Fountain (or any Fountain for that matter). It cost way too much, took way too long, and it was all done on my dime. It would have been wise to let the factory figure all of this out on their dime and then buy one already set up. Live and learn. I've heard that the switch goes much smoother on cats but I have no experience with that.
Great engines but man was it ever a hassle on my boat. I have a rigging bill to prove it.
08-22-2010, 11:55 PM
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Others Ilmor owners have told me that the 710's are very hard on XR's and they often break. I would guess that the high rate of failure has much to do with Ilmor developing their own version of the 6 drive. . A 35 ex might be light enough that you could get away with XR's if you baby them. I don't think the Bravo's would work well at all. The 710's produce a lot of torque.
08-26-2010, 05:17 PM
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From my experience the XR's handle the 625's well. I've blown one vertical shaft in five years, and that one in the first season probably because I used to come out of the hole a little quick. I've come up really slow since and not one drive issue in 4 years.
Others Ilmor owners have told me that the 710's are very hard on XR's and they often break. I would guess that the high rate of failure has much to do with Ilmor developing their own version of the 6 drive. . A 35 ex might be light enough that you could get away with XR's if you baby them. I don't think the Bravo's would work well at all. The 710's produce a lot of torque.
Others Ilmor owners have told me that the 710's are very hard on XR's and they often break. I would guess that the high rate of failure has much to do with Ilmor developing their own version of the 6 drive. . A 35 ex might be light enough that you could get away with XR's if you baby them. I don't think the Bravo's would work well at all. The 710's produce a lot of torque.
I have a single 710 in a 28 foot boat and it is an incredible mill.
Quite different from a BBC and indeed - hard on drives.
They make a lot of torque in the upper RPM range and spin very fast - and being so smooth its hard to "feel" the RPM.
It just keeps pulling.
54 hours before a total upper and lower rebuild on a Teague platinum.
BBC is a lot easier all the way around and when things like headers go- a lot cheaper.
That said Im delighted with the engine.
Uncle Dave
08-26-2010, 10:18 PM
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I have a single 710 in a 28 foot boat and it is an incredible mill.
Quite different from a BBC and indeed - hard on drives.
They make a lot of torque in the upper RPM range and spin very fast - and being so smooth its hard to "feel" the RPM.
It just keeps pulling.
54 hours before a total upper and lower rebuild on a Teague platinum.
BBC is a lot easier all the way around and when things like headers go- a lot cheaper.
That said Im delighted with the engine.
Uncle Dave
Quite different from a BBC and indeed - hard on drives.
They make a lot of torque in the upper RPM range and spin very fast - and being so smooth its hard to "feel" the RPM.
It just keeps pulling.
54 hours before a total upper and lower rebuild on a Teague platinum.
BBC is a lot easier all the way around and when things like headers go- a lot cheaper.
That said Im delighted with the engine.
Uncle Dave
08-26-2010, 11:23 PM
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You have any pics you can post?
