Ok, might be some stupid questions but here we go.

What is the average hours for 700's before any minor and major rebuilds?

Is there much differences in the maintenance and cost to rebuild for 525 verses 700?

Is the 700 the new 525 in the future? It seems like more and more people want 700's in cig's, nortech, outerlimits and more. Why? Speed?

With proper maintenance I believe 300 hours is possible between rebuilds, maybe more. We got about 100 out of our 700's and had to rebuild. This was due to leaking headers though. Bought the boat with about 30 hours and not too sure of the maintenance on it before us. Cobra just rebuilt all 3 engines @ $10k each with a 50 hour warranty. They dynoed just under 750hp. We added dual water pumps to help make sure headers don't become problem again. We change the oil every 15-20 hours so now hopefully we won't have to worry about them for quite a while. We also change the drive gear lube every 30 hours, transmission gear lube every 30 hours, supercharger oil after every run. I'm not sure what 525's cost to rebuild but the 700's do require more maintenance and cost more overall, but the extra performance is worth it IMO.

People want the 700's so they don't get XR (explode and replace) outdrives. The nxt and #6 drives work way better and you get lots more speed for not a huge amount more $$.

I asked Peter Cowen from Mercury Racing this very question in 2012 at the Miami Boat show he suggested that the 700 engine life is the same as the 525. Also spoke with Cigarette about this they suggested the 700 will out last the headers.

Really

Yeah really. Ask anyone with 525's and xr drives, especially staggered. I didn't come up with explode and replace myself, that is what the mechanics down in TX call them. They love them, makes em a bunch of $$. For what you are going to pay to replace the xr's you can have the nxt.

We also have a formula 382 with twin 600's and XR's. I think we are on our 4th set of drives. Going to be upgrading to Imco's now. Should have just done Imco's to begin with but the $6500 for an XR looked like a better deal at the time. We were wrong.

Thanks for all the replies! Sounds crazy to think you need to rebuild motors after 200-300 hours. I am torn on wanting a cigarette. I would Ike to trailer again for a year or 2. Would like check out more of these cool PR. But to think about the cost and constant maintenance really drives me away. It also seems to appear that the go fast keeps going down in value. I remember when I joined this sight there use to be 1400 boats listed. Now less than half and many boats take months if not years to sell unless they give them away.

I must say the newer 39' 700's look mighty tempting.

You can do ok with a 525 boat and XR'S. I did it for several years, racked up a lot of hours and miles and never broke a drive. But when it came time to rebuild, it was a complete rebuild and costly because everything had to be replaced, shafts, gears, bearings, ect. I ended up putting Imco SCX drives on because of the rebuild costs and because I was planning on installing some blowers and would have been well over 700 HP. That I don't recommend with XR'S. Besides that, everything that people are telling you about headers are true, they break a lot. I've had headers crack on other motors in the past be never had so much trouble with them as I did on the 525's. If you get a boat with 525's or 700's I suggest swapping the headers out with something like Stainless Marine. We're running those headers on Rough Rider right now and haven't had any problems. As far as resale goes, they all depreciate. I'm not sure if any go fast hold their value better than others. But I can tell you that if you get a Top Gun and need to sell it later, unless you have some ridiculously ugly boat or an unrealistic price, they move, easily. Goo luck with what every you decide to do.

Go with Imco SCX upper case , SC lower case you will love it, i blew my XR to pieces no salvage , I have the whipple stage 2 kit around 740 hp getting 94 mph on gps the imco has 30 hours not a problem .