Mentalpause

I talked to the guys from Ilmor for a couple hours in Miami. I thought they would be excellent to work with. As far as the general consensus, prices, decisions etc maybe we should take this offline and talk via mail or phone. I will send you a PM.


OOOOPS, just found that you don't have PM or email enabled. Mine is, so if you send me a PM or email with your email address or phone number, I will contact you tonight and we can talk about power choices. I'd be happy to call you to talk about it. I'm in the exact position you are, and looking at the same options you are. My goal was to decide at the Miami boat show, so that is what I spent most of my time there doing. I will share my observations when we talk.

LEOPAJM

John .... Don't worry about sharing what you've found on here as your information may really help another fellow member that is in a similar situation.

JM

Mentalpause

I'm not intending not to share. I spent 3 days in Miami and spent a ton of time talking to the Ilmor engineers and the Merc engineers. It is obvious what each of them think. So I talked to several manufacturers, all gofast builders, not cruisers etc. To my surprise every one of them said given everything to consider, price, performance, service and resale, the best value on the market is Merc. Now with that said, if you ask me which engine I like better, my pick would be Ilmor. Which do I think would perform better, I'd say the Ilmor 625 over the Merc 600, but that is opinion and not based on fact. I've also talked to Ilmor 550 owners that say the Ilmor is more fuel efficient. One downside with Ilmor is I wish they made their own drives and packaged them with the engine. I know they package Teague's with it, but I still wish they had their own.

My biggest concern - I put my head under hundreds of hatches in Miami. I saw one Ilmor in a Hustler. There may have been more and I just didn't see them. But on the other hand there were literally dozens, maybe even close to a hundred 600s at the show.

Should that bother you? Well. that is probably a personal thing. It will bother some folks and not others.

bespoke

The latest issue of Hot Boat states that Ilmor engines were all over the La Boat Show. Maybe they placed their focus on the west coast custom scene!?!

Mentalpause

Anybody out there that spent some time at the LA show that can talk about what kind of showing Ilmor made out there. I wouldn't doubt they did better there than Miami. I think the west coast builders may be more apt to try something new before the east coast. But then again the only reason I say that is west coast in general tries things before the midwest. It will be interesting to see if a midwest engine builder starts their market out west.

bespoke

From my notes there were Ilmor engines in the following at LA:

DCB F-29 - Pair of custom painted 625's
Outerlimits 39' Quattro - Pair of 625's
Eliminator 30' Daytona - Pair of 550's
Commander 29' - Single 550
Ultra 28' Stealth - Single 550
Two 625 Show Engines
One 550 Show Engine

Mentalpause

Did OL have any numbers of how the quattro ran with the 625s?

dankerst

John,

That is a six drive boat. I talked to Scott Conrad, and he said they saw approx 99 mph. He said he thought thay would get it to 101 mph when dialed in. He was very positive on the Ilmor 625 hp.

p.s. my loser brother in law put that quote at the bottom for me...not that i don't like hot women and fast boats....

Mentalpause

I would think the Teague/Imco drive would be a tad faster than the #6. Not as reliable though.

Sean H

i'll take reliability over a few MPH everyday....