I thought there was a thread about this somewhere on here, but I can't find it so….

If you were ordering a new boat..call it a 30-35 V bottom….

Not a race boat…but not a slug either…say twins I/O's in the 600-700 hp range

What power do you put in it & why?

The Merc XR has limitations and the next drive up is "pricey"…

Do you pay the big $$'s for Merc ?

Do you live with rebuilding the XR's as needed?

Ilmor power and their Indy drive?

Pfaff, Teague, BoostPower and an Imco ?

Any thoughts?

I'll bite since you are asking but I'm only speaking as a "reader" because I have only every run, bravo, alpha, and TRS.

You need to answer 3 questions in order to get the most accurate responses consideration
How will you use it?
What is your budget?
Where do you live?

Since others will surely respond to your question I would ask them about Indmar engines? they have marineized the LSA, a proven high horsepower ls motor.



Imore

the answer to your question is a function of cost, speed, and reliability. as a prospective buyer, you need to pick 2.

speed and reliability: 1350's with 6's or 8's (there is no limit)...but the cost will sky rocket
reliability and cost: 525's with bravo's...but you have no speed
cost and speed: blown 572's with bravo's...bye bye reliability

for the purpose of this thread i would choose cost and reliability. in dream world i would have unlimited money but that isnt reality.

for me i would pick a simple 525 hooked to an imco scx for the following reasons:
-relatively easy maintenance, certainly wont be the fastest boat but will be turn key
-the imco scx's have proven to be a lot better than xr's

mercury is great stuff .. butt my pfaffs i wouldnt call a slug .. or potter , gellner , to name a few .. my konrads prs have done well so far .. but a xr save you a trans .. but then also need a good idling motor for i n out of gear , where a transmission softens the blow a bit ,,

Mercury doesn't make 525's anymore so other options would be 520's or 565's. Personally I would go with 700's and 6's. Another thing with Mercury, they want you to buy a motor and drive package together and pricing is way better than just buying a motor.

OK..thanks for all the input & I'm a bit surprised there isn't more love for Ilmor. Dunno why, really, just surprised. I don't know anything about their stuff but it sure looks cool.

So, some more info:

I'm not opposed to Indmar but I believe their largest displacement motor is a 6.2 which is a cool motor; we have an LSA in our ski boat but you have to buzz it to make hp and isn't that hard on drives? Indmar stuff primarily goes in direct or v-drive applications and those are exponentially tougher than a stern drive.

This isn't really a hypothetical exercise, I'm passively in the market trying to figure out exactly what I want. I'd like to have a boat ordered by this time next year.

I'm fairly certain of the hull choice, but power is stumping me.

I understand the "good, fast, cheap - pick 2" concept and don't really have a budget but I want the most bang for the buck. Merc 6's add what ? Roughly 50K to the price for a pair of drives? 60K ? That's a lot of coin if there are alternatives. That's really my question…are there alternatives? It's not a cat, if I was buying a cat hull I wouldn't have this issue.

I'm not "joe offshore racer wannabe". I'm not going to abuse the drives. I have a heavy 24' boat now with a BoostPower twin blower setup that we've got tuned down to 900 hp and I haven't killed the XR drive behind that yet. We're replacing gears about every 60 hours and I'm good with that, I knew what I was getting into & the look on some of the faces when we go around their "hot boat" is worth the price of admission all day long. However, it's a given that these drives are going to take more abuse than the XR in our 24….Lake Mi does that.

So, a baseline of 2 x 700hp that isn't going to get "race treatment" in a 30-35' sport boat and run on Lake Mi when it's nice. Lets say with the cooler and fuel tanks full it weighs 10,000 lbs.

If I'm understand Merc Racing's website, if you buy their 662 or 700 mill you have to choose between a 6 or a NXT that "combines the best of a 6 and an XR". I didn't think there was a "best of the XR" in a big boat with 700hp.

I understand Merc has a bigger dealer network. But 50K more for a pair of drives ? In a boat that isn't going to be raced?

That's exactly why I was looking for alternatives, if there are any.

The way I see it my options are as follows:

Merc 662 or 700 with a 6 drive
or
Ilmor 700 or 725 with an Indy drive
or
BoostPower 700 with an Imco

I'll add that I have no reservations at all with the BoostPower engine; I have one of Alexi's engines now and am very happy with it and the treatment I've received from the BoostPower guys.

More thoughts?

Blown 540 and SCX/SC setups?

700s / NXT

Arneson, Arneson, Arneson and either a Merc 700 or Ilmor in front of it. Forget that inefficient Merc garbage, get yourself about 10 MPH and years of trouble free boating with the same horsepower.

I will tell you one thing 700's in a 30-35' boat...you are gonna need a shoe horn to get them out or hire a midget mechanic. That's gonna be a horrible setup to work on. Our old small block 292 was horrendous.

With that said for brand new 6's you are talking some serious coin. Like 302 said the only other bang for the buck would be Arnesons in that price point but you aren't gonne be swimming off the back of it...like I said it's all about cost, speed, and reliability.