Hello fellas, i'm a soon to be owner of a fountain 35 executioner w twin 496s (all stock). I was thinking about some upgrades i might be interested in over the winter and of course a nice aftermarket exhaust is the 1st thing on my mind. Million $ question: why is a set of headers for a boat like this atleast 3k per motor, but +- $500 for the same motor (bbc) in a jet boat? The only visual difference i could tell is what looks like a water inlet for cooling on the offshore boats, and of course different bends for routing; whereas jet boat applications are ran dry.. any thoughts or input is appreciated.

Welcome! Many threads on here about 496 exhaust and the consensus (I have read) is that you will gain little to nothing over the factory pieces...

Save your money

paint and or polish the ones you have. the manifolds look good when painted and the risers polish up pretty good. they flow pretty good.

The only two choices are Dana or CMI.

Either one will only net you about 1 MPH. The stock manifolds aren't that bad, your sound might change a tad but not much.