Has anyone used these engines?

[hausherrs]

http://www.usmarineengine.com/crusader- ... ngine.html

I’m just curious. I’m not there yet. But under $6k list for a couple reman long blocks I could maybe do it sooner than later. I have 1800 hours on mine.

They have a 330 HP crusader option that would be a direct replacement. But they "Encourage" you to go with the 420hp engine option. Of course my puny TBI wouldn’t net anywhere near that.

What are thoughts and experiences with something like this?

Thanks

Steven
96 400 w/Crusader 454xli

[MakinTime]

When I replaced one of my crusader 454s last year I used Promar engines the reman long block was around $3000 I believe. They have a 2 year unlimited hour warranty and I could not be more pleased. So far I have 100 hours on it and no issues. The build time was about a week and freight was free.

[waybomb]

It's always nice to have a little extra oomph!

But it's not just the cost of the engines. Props will be needed. Do your transmissions handle the extra torque? You will be happy with the speed,so you'll use more throttle, and as a result more fuel. You'll need different injection. Maybe different exhaust. And who knows what else. And, more horsepower means less usable life.

1800 hours is a darn good track record. Stick with stock and spend the saved money on some good scotch and cubans!

[km1125]

Interesting. "All the parts off your original marine engine will fit on our 420 horse engine." I'm guessing if you're using all the other parts from your existing engine, you're not going to get anywhere near 420HP, but perhaps something more than the 330 you were getting. Perhaps a bit more aggressive torque curve? If you upgraded the intake and fuel, you might then be able to take advantage of the extra power, but then you'd also need to consider the items above (trans, shafts, props, etc).

If you stayed at 330 though, perhaps you'd have a much larger margin to the rated output of the components and perhaps less risk of breakage?

[hausherrs]

It sounds like they are just porting the heads and maybe a bigger cam. But not too much cam because you dont want to ruin the lower rpm tq.

But the throttle body CFM and Injector size will limit HP. I think the 330s are the way to go. I think they offer them for $2600 each before freight.

Less breaking is better than more HP when we are talking about boats

[tomschauer]

I would be interested in viewing a dyno curve. You pay for horsepower but you drive (or boat torque). They probably have larger valves and ports and a taller cam. all fine if you are always running at the top end. They also most likely have higher compression, depending on the compression, you may need to always run high octane fuel to prevent detonation and burning up those nice big valves.
If you could see the dyno curve, you would most likely see that you would receive little benefit from the higher horsepower for average cruising in a 40' aft cabin.
But you can't discount the bragging rights.

[bud37]

The other question would be are they using more overlap in the cam, correct me if I'm wrong here, but I was under the impression that this was one of the reasons for exhaust reversion causing water ingestion in some installations......I also believe that more hp from the same displacement is not necessarily the best thing, usually has a down side somewhere........

[Viper]

Source of the post ....overlap.... I was under the impression that this was one of the reasons for exhaust reversion causing water ingestion in some installations....

Correct. If you change the valve overlap spec, you may need to modify the exhaust system. Merc came out with resonators that get installed inside the exhaust hose just after the elbow for higher HP apps. One of its functions was to help smooth out the reversion pulses in hopes of minimizing ingestion.