496 HO Procharger
 

Hey, new on here! Long story short just bought a Nordic Rage with a 496 HO and a procharger on it. The previous owner put the procharger on at the beginning of may (I have receipts and shipping labels so I know it to be true) he put roughly 25 hours on it. I don’t wanna blow up my boat! So I’m looking to pull it off. Anyone interested in purchasing it?

Doubt you’ll blow up your “boat” or engine given the fact it has 25 hours + ~ of run time. With the proper tune you should have many trouble free boating hours. jmo

Your weak point is the drive, not the engine. I would not take it off. Just stay out of the boost, ESPECIALLY when coming on plane. Once you get it up on plane, you can start laying into it when you are ready.

I ran one on a 496 for several seasons and several hundred hours with no problems..... it doesn't even come into play until you run over approx 4000 rpm's.... leave it be & enjoy the ride......

StarKustom,

I would agree with both of these replies. If you've got a Bravo1 drive, you'll scatter that before your engine even sees a problem. The 496HO/ProCharger is a fairly proven package, even if it doesn't yield quite the output a true supercharger would.

The one thing I would somewhat disagree with is that, as per my (somewhat short) experience with the same package in my 280 PowerQuest, you won't likely reach boost condition while getting up on plane. If you've got it propped right for the engine package, it will be a bit too much load to get the RPMs high enough for the ProCharger to start producing actual boost until the hull frees up. This doesn't mean, however, that this isn't the most strain you will put your drive through, other than airing it out and landing it still at WOT (this is nearly a death sentence for the B1 drive with any real HP going through it). You should probably limit your WOT holeshots, or avoid them altogether.

Thanks. Brad.
Model Machine and Precision LLC
(937)545-8991

...

I’ve talked to a handful of people, the consensus seems to be don’t hammer it out of the hole, and don’t run it WOT too much. But I also hear the motor won’t last long, especially above 4000rpm. Realistically I probably won’t run in wide open hardly ever, I bought the boat cause I liked the boat/shape/condition/price not to go fast. The 496 alone would be fine for me. I’m torn, the previous owner did all the right things. Retuned the computer, upgraded the fuel system, plugs etc. he also installed a 5 blade 29 pitch prop. He said he would feather it outta the hole and cruise around 60 to his liking. I just don’t wanna work on it all the time keeping things in line.

But wont the fuel pressure be out of wack without it?

Keith,

It shouldn't. It's a two stage fuel pump that only engages the high output phase after the engine reaches positive manifold pressure.

Thanks. Brad.
Model Machine and Precision LLC
(937)545-8991

StarKustom,

I'm assuming we're talking about the ProCharger M1 5psi package...? It's a pretty mild build, really.

You shouldn't have any troubles out of the 496HO. The base 496 might be problematic, but not the HO. The base 496 has cast rotating assembly parts, but the 496HO has all forged. It's a brute of an engine. You won't hurt it running WOT any more than any other engine. There's a guy on Cumberland that has a Rinker 262ss with a 496HO/ProCharger that runs all over the lake at WOT. I don't know what he runs, but I know our 454 powered Rinker 236sc wouldn't keep up with him, and by a good bit. I also know our "new" PowerQuest 280, with your same package, will run 50MPH all day long, well short of WOT at about 3500RPM, and right at the zero manifold pressure stage.

The only real drawback to this package is the effective parasitic loss of it's low end torque, being that more prop is needed to render the higher RPM HP gains. What was done when the previous owner had the ECU recalibrated? If they sent it to Whipple, hopefully they did the Stage 2 recal, and you've gotten some of that loss back.

Back to the drive..... Do you have a stock B1? Or an X or XR? I was told by a couple people that you can actually extend the life of an overdriven B1 drive by increasing the pitch and reducing blade count of the prop. This will allow it to slip a bit more coming out of the hole, reducing the effective load on the drive's internals. Don't shoot the messenger.

Thanks. Brad.
Model Machine and Precision LLC
(937)545-8991