35' 05 fountain 496 vs 2002 fountain 500efi??
#21
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Hulls are the same. With 496 Mag HO's around 78-80 seems to be the number. One difference could be a change in the "X", or drive height, over the years. And some of the EX's used the 1.8 gears vs the 1.5's which allowed them to run 32" Bravos vs 30's, this gave a little better top end. Like the upper end of the range above, not into the low 80's.
One other thing for you, I do not believe that Fountain ever offered the lower HP version of the 496's, only the 425 HP version which was tagged as the 496 Mag HO by Merc.
#22
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With regards to the 35 "Lightning classic" or 35 Executioner", depending on what year it is/was, the 2005 has 3 more years of evolution than the 2002. Mostly subtle changes, and mostly improvements. The older models (mostly in the 90's) had hydraulic bolster seats, now they are all electric, no more hydraulic lines under the front seats - just a subtle difference. The 2002 with 500's will have Gil (or Fountain) offshore engine mounts, whereas the 2005 496HO boat will have the standard Mercury adjustable pedestal mounts ... again, another subtle difference. In the late 90's/early 2000's, Fountains came with hydromotive Q-IV props and the boat's X was set to optimize performance with those props. Now they use Bravo 1 props, which evidently allows higher X dimensions and they have optimized the boats performance with that combination, which seems to have gained them a few more mph. In 2002 it would have been rare to find a GPS speedo in a boat leaving the factory, liquid filled was the "option". Now GPS speedo's are pretty much the norm, along with monster Livorsi gauges, in a Fountain. In 2002, most Fountains had white plastic rub rails, but by 2005, most had the stainless steel insert instead of plastic, for whatever that's worth. The 496HO boats mostly have the "new" stronger Bravo X drives with 1.65 gear ratio, too, as RaggedEdge pointed out above. The list goes on and on ...
Last edited by bob_t; 01-31-2010 at 10:49 AM.
#25
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I owned a 2001 lightning classic with 500s and a white fairing. It was one of my favorite boats because it had a great horsepower to weight ratio. I could tell you that the 2001 had xz drives and standard bravo props. Does anyone know the upgrade cost from a 496 to a 500 back when the 500 was an option?