http://www.offshoreonly.com/classifi...cs-o67461.html

Anyone got info? Good, bad, ugly.......
I already know about the concerns of future parts availability etc.

That boat should run at least mid 90'swith that power but XR Drives will not hold up.

Good Luck

I think it is a beautiful boat. I have raced with XZ gearset and used XR on pleasure boats with this hp without an issue. You have to stay on top of inspecting XR gear sets for pitting and throttle boat properly. Good luck

Thanks guys. The XR drives were also an immediate point of concern when I saw the ad, but probably not an ultimate deal breaker.

I don't think XR's would be big concern on this boat. I ran a set of Ilmor 625's thru XR's on my 38 Fever for 5 seasons and then one year with a set of 710's. I only broke one drive in all that time and it was totally my fault, I was the pace boat on the LC Poker run and my buddy dropped the flag before I was ready and I had to slam the sticks forward to keep from getting run over - got big air and snapped an upper. Other than that one incident I had no issues with drives.

The Ilmors have a lot less torque than their Merc counterparts HP to HP. I'd do that set up in a heartbeat.

The 35 Zr is a great running boat up to about 90mph. After that they tend to start getting a little loose and tend to chine walk. They most likely propped the boat down to only run mid 90's.

Having said that, here's more to consider. Ilmors are usually good for 400 to 600 hrs before needing rebuilds. Considering that these motors are 10 years old you are going to need to rebuild them soon, if not immediately - and you wanna rebuilt them before they let go. Also, CMI makes those headers and when I had my 710's rebuilt (also 2007 model years) three of the four banks were leaking.

The bad news is that with as many hours on that boat and as old as those Ilmors are, you need to figure in rebuilds for the 625's in the price of what you pay for the boat (and possible header repair and/or replace). The good news is that for not much more money Ilmor will turn your 625's into 710's - which your 35 should handle fine if you drive it sensibly.

I had already kinda figured a buffer in there for rebuilds, but hadn't thought about the header scenario. Comparatively speaking, how does the cost of rebuilds with these compare to Merc rebuilds? I did ride in a 35 with 525s at LC a couple of years ago and remember the aforementioned chine walking starting to kick in at around 82, but thought maybe it was because the driver hadn't quite figured out how to trim the boat just right at that point.

Ilmor rebuilds ran me around 18K per side. Your headers might be fine but to me it would be worth a couple hundred bucks to have them checked before you buy the boat.

I'm bigtime header-conscience. After my Ilmor headers had issues it prompted me to have the headers on my 2007 525 in the Advantage checked and sure enough both banks were just starting to leak. Hadn't done any engine damage yet but the leaks would have destroyed the top end on my 525 if I had not caught it.

Gunrunner72, did you end up moving forward on the 35zr with the 625 Ilmors?