Squeal, Squeak, Whine ...whatever. That's what I'm hearing from my new motor. More pronounced at higher rpms, the sound comes through the engine box. Only 2 hours on the engine. Has anyone else ran into this????

120 hours here and not one sound from the belt. I would suspect that there is some kind of pulley misalignment going on with your set-up. That could really degregate the life of your belt.

i have 496 mags andI had something similar that i thought was the belt. it ended being the air being sucked into the air filter/flame arrestor at about 2500 rpms and then stopped in the low 3000s rpm. A reccomendation i got for this was replacing the stock air filters with K&N brand. i haven't done it yet but it is on my list of things to do.

if you do it. let us know if it worked!

good luck

I'm taking the boat out for a few hours today - I'll check it out at those rpm's, and inspect the belt to see if it's showing signs of wear. Thanks guys...

Yup, the 496 HO sucks - AIR. At idle, the belt drive makes that "scrunchy" sound which suggested it might squeal at higher speeds. A few runs with the motor box open proved that was not the case. It's definitely the flame arrestor. Good news is, the noise bothers my wife, so she may insist on the K&N fix.

let us know if it works for you!

good luck

any luck with K&N flame arrestrs?

I have never used K&N filters, any truth that they help airflow and give a bump in HP and better MPG??

78 hours and no noise at any speed

496's will not gain any more power or speed from a K&N, the stock flame arrestor flows real good. Now you WILL get clean air in the motor. All the belt dust will be caught in the filter vs. ingested in your motor.

BTW: My belts never squeeked, but DO throw alot of dust. Even after 62 hours.