I am a huge fan of the V10 Ilmor engines! Obviously my love for the Dodge Viper helps.

For some reason I had this thought in my head that in identical boats, Ilmor 725 would out perform a Merc 700 for almost the same price. Especially since it weighs less and revs higher. I am now wondering if this is FACT or was my passion for this engine clouding the truth?

This is in no way a negative towards either engine or manufacture. They both have their place, and without options performance boating would be boring.

I would love to see a list of boats worth comparing and their performance numbers! Thanks!

Me Too

I have heard that the merc700 and ilmor 710 indy are very close,i have heard the indy burns less fuel and the merc package a lot easier to upgrade(whipple)just depends on what you prefer both are awesome packages with great reliability would love to have a set of either in my zrc

I like the Illmor too. Spent some time talking to them at Miami this year and was pretty impressed.
Would love to see some head to head comparisons as well, same boat, Merc 700 vs. Illmor.
My personal thought is that the Illmor would be more better suited to a cat or smaller (sub 40') v bottom, or a generally lighter boat per say. Illmor does give up some torque vs the 700 Merc if I remember correctly.

I guess I need to move this thread to the General boating section since thats the only place people go. Why scroll down, that takes to much effort!

personaly I never thought much of the dodge version quite a wimpie piece of c h - -, now the Ilmor version is a diff. story, I have had the unfortunate job of repairing them in the dealer outside of Dayton of a # of years.

I would guess that the performance numbers will be VERY close. While the Ilmor has a slight power advantage, it's also turning a heavier (stronger) drivetrain and a bigger prop. Fuel burn numbers will probably favor Ilmor pretty strongly.

Formula is currently building the fourth 725-powered 382, so they've probably got the package pretty well dialed in at this point. Maybe someone can get test numbers from the 700NXT 382's that were built a few years ago?

Excellent suggestion. BTW is that Moses?

I know it's 600SCi vs the Ilmore 625 but this is a classic showdown and the results would be pretty similar.
Great read too!

http://www.mercuryracing.com/_media/...e--Boating.pdf

That's the best test to date, and pretty close to a draw overall. However, the current 650 and 725 Ilmors are a new generation of engines that share virtually no parts or technology with the older engines. They are likely to be more efficient.

I would also want to include both recommended and real-world service intervals (and expenses) as part of the comparison!

It's a cartoon that Rick Jiminez of Powerboat did after a group of us got together in 2001 and put together some guidelines that became know as "The Poker Run Ten Commandments".