Ok your read the subject line.

What's the difference between GM Marine Engines & Mercruiser?

You can do a search and everyone is selling GM 502 415HP Base marine engines (823801p) for around $6,500.

This will be cheaper than rebuilding/stroking my engines I have now. It will be less HP but brand new.

Anyone

Smart man Big Jim!!
The less you touch on the inside the longer the engines will last... Unless you are prepared to spend really big bucks on the engines and only with the few companies that know what they are doing ( maybe 10 or 12 across the U.S. ) leave well enough alone and go for the new engines... Over the years I have seen too many guys waste money on rebuilds and have the engines fail

Jim

Jim,
I would imagine your idea on builds (496's) would be probably pretty close to what I have done from what I have read with the exception of your lifter bore issue. I'll start adding up appx what I have into mine and let you know. I see where your going and trust me, I've thought about it also. IF I WERE TO DO AGAIN. Not if when??? The one thing I took in consideration was CASH FLOW. My business isn't always that great so I built mine over time and paid cash as I went. I hate payments...

That didn't take long. appx. 8,000.00 ea from pan to carb. That includes fresh 4 bolt main blk and all the good forged internals, Dart alum. 310 Pro 1's, Dart intakes, hyd. roller cams, etc. If I had the money up front I would perhaps look into what your thinking of. What are your thoughts on heads if you went this route? I was just thinking you'd probably have another 4k min. if you did similar mods to that of your 496's go get the power your looking for. You can always do that down the road also. Just give velocityvector a call. He'll be down tomorrow.

Good luck

one is an assembly line build,,,and the merc is hand built,i read that the long blocks are checked a lot more for foregin debris and metal shavings

Thats about what I had in my last 496 build, then additional 2k for exhaust, so I had about 10k in one engine. Well that ship has sailed I already bought 2 sets of bare Dart 310 Pro Ones. Bob Mandra (rmbuilder) called me last week on the lifter bore issue just to set things straight. My head is spinning from all of this,,,, what to do what to do

Jim,
To be honest here I think your wanting to be talked out of the 496's. LOL... As mentioned in your other post regarding the lifter bores, when this is all done you will have perfectly machined blocks and balanced rotating assm's. When it's all said and done you'll have more power for less money. All depends on your budget I guess. I realize this can be viewed many different ways however that's just my opinion. The 502's are an awesome foundation however I just think you'll have to sink a fare amount of money also to get the desired end results.

I am pretty sure only Merc Blue engines are hand built.

Still no one has an answer for my question.

The only thing that i know of being the difference is maybe the painting process all the engines are made by G.M. and then marinized by other people the high perf engines are hand built by Mercruiser. I was told by Mercruiser rep that G.M. can run its marine assembly line for two shifts and have enough engines to supply the marine market for a whole year

I think what it comes down to is what HP are you looking for? If 415 is what you want then factory engines are the way to go. If you want 700hp then someone has to get inside and do some tinkering. I heard that speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?