Here's Johnny

Pretty interesting to see this thread. My boat was purchased with an older style volvo system...I have had the boat 4 years now and it has run flawlessly. I have been talking about repowering for a while now and priced both options at the NYC boat show. A very hard decision to make do to the popularity of merc but I have gone with the volvo. First of all my marina is one of the east coasts largest volvo dealers and is superb with maintnance when needed. Second I have had such reliability with my current motor that i feel very safe staying with volvo. Third I don't mind losing a few mph (I will not be the fastest anyway) while gaining superb single engine meneuverability around the docks. Fourth would be that duo-prop hole shot...you come up on plane REAL FAST. Last would be price...when you add up all the bells and whistles they were about the same. Now if you plan on adding after market HP you have to go with merc...I will likely not be doing that do to how short our season is here in NY...I can't stand to lose a weekend!!!

Raylar

The Volvo 8.1 GXi and Merc 496HO are both the same GM Powertrain engines. The differences are that Mercury makes freshwater cooling standard and on the Volvo it is optional. The Mercury uses their ECM which is the PCM555 with a guardian "mode" and the Volvo uses a MEFI 4 ECM system. The Volvo uses the DPX duo-prop drive and the Mercury uses the Bravo X. The Bravo XR is optional and better. The Volvo is available with an external hydraulic steering system on the drive as optional. The 496 engines show excellent results from both manufacturers. The Volvo drive is said to be stronger than the Mercury Bravo.The duo-prop drive on the Volvo is just a tad slower in top speed over the single prop Merc Bravo but tends to be faster out of the hole.. One place I know the Volvo can use help is the exhaust manifold-riser system. Volvo still uses a wet joint between a center log manifold(cast iron) and cast riser(cast iron), where-as the Mercury 496 exhaust manifolds are cast aluminum with stainless curved riser pipes and a dry riser-manifold joint.A decent set of aftermarket manifolds or headers solves this weakness in the Volvo. The Mercury exhaust manifolds flow better than the Volvo because they have individual runners to the riser and the Merc curved stainless riser is a is better than the Volvo sharp turn elbow. Mercury's exhaust manifolds for this engine also weigh much less than Volvo's. As for performance upgrades for this engine the Volvo and the Mercury 8.1-496 engines will both accept our BigPower kits and parts and both are easily capable of over 525 HP with our stock bolt ons.
Hope this clears some questions and helps everyone understand the differences between these two manufacturers 8.1 - 496 offerings.
Raylar

East Coast B

Thanks everyone! Lot's of good points, pro's and con's!

Really appreciate your time!

bglz42

Those Volvos don't last very long, either..

The Volvo AQ250 on my 1970 is all original, and has NEVER BEEN OPENED! And as you can imagine, with it beeing on an 18 Donzi, it's not babied....

fund razor

Nobody even mentioned that the Volvos are reversable rotation, at least the SX are, and that they shift better than anything else out there.

Michael1

All that work on the exhaust system, and Mercury only got 5 more hp that Volvo?

Michael

johnfharding

I have run the living crap out of this boat for 10 years and that includes heavy, tubing , skiing, Full throttle for 5 minutes on too many occasions to count. Do not be afraid of the Volvo's. This boat has GPS'd at 60 mph and in my opinion Volvo DP's are better speed wise than a bravo 3

glassdave

amen to that, i have always been a huge Volvo fan and if i was building a new boat would use there stuff in a heartbeat. Heck i have a couple DPX set ups and even considered swapping them onto my Scarab III but plan to sell that boat soon and truth be told i wanna keep my hands on the stuff.

Volvo = engineers running engineering
Merc = marketing running engineering


lol, just saw this was a eight year old thread

wannabe

GM builds both the Volvo and the black Merc 8.1's and sells the engine to them. They are virtually identical 8.1's and are set up as marine engines.

Wannabe