Announcement is out, check out Mercury website. 4.6L V8, 505 lbs, pick mine up later today and will get video up with test run in next 48 hours. Interesting tidbit, they shipped it with a 23 pitch 3 blade fury....

Sweet looking rig there

Nice boat

Awesome boat.

Cool sure curiouse on that 23.

That's on sweet looking rig!

Beautiful boat Ken! Can't wait to hear your opinion on the new Merc.

23 pitch? That is surprising...

What is the break in process?

Good looking boat Ken.

Wow! what an awesome looking boat and motor

Beautiful boat! Motor looks great!

She's purdy

She's a beaut Clark!

23p Fury is their reccomendation? Higher gearing in the gear case due to the torque of the V8? Higher redline? Interesting. Give us a follow upafter testing!

I believe I just wet my britches.

Sweet! Any idea on how much testing Mercury did before they brought this "bad boy" to market?

Oh yea, you purchased from some really good folks.

Wow, that's a beauty!

Get out there and give us some numbers.

yeah that is curious, you would think it could turn a 23 @ 6.5kRPM or higher unless it is a real low gear ratio

How many rpms are these motors turning?

The motor looks rad, the boat need to be redesigned a bit so they fit together better. Seems like a ranger hasn�t changed in quite some time.

Beautiful boat! I can't wait to actually HEAR that V8! Keep us updated Ken! Don't keep us waiting!

You can get a taste of the sound here

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt..._M#Post12760783

Nice boat Ken. Is that 521?

I would not expect the new 250 to be more than a couple mph faster than the old 250 ProXS. Remember, it is still a 250 hp motor. It should be able to turn a larger prop though with more displacement & torque. That it itself would make it a little faster.

I am very interested in this new V8 platform because with a 4.6L V8 the sky is the limit on how much power it can make. This motor could easily make 325 hp naturally aspirated and live forever. Slap a supercharger on it like the previous generation Verado and 500 hp is easily attainable.

Good times!!

Would different octane fuel change hp?

No sir. As a matter of fact you would be wasting money to use higher octane fuel in a low compression motor like this one. This is a very detuned V8 motor to "only make 250" hp out of 4.6 L. Even the new 300R requires 87 octane because it too is very lightly stressed as a V8.

The only time you will need to use higher octane fuel is when they start raising the compression, either by shaving the heads, or using domed pistons, OR adding a supercharger would you need higher octane fuel.

For example, a normal Merc 250ProXS has about 120-125 psi of compression. You can get away with 87 fuel.

A Merc Racing 300XS has about 140 psi of compression so you need 91 octane fuel.

My old Merc 325 Drag SS motor had 200psi compression and required the use of 112 octane race fuel as a minimum.

Using higher octane fuel will not increase HP to any engine UNLESS the engine has a provision to retard the timing if it senses low octane fuel like my wife's Beemer. Even then, it makes whatever the max HP is and if the engine's computer senses low octane it will retard the timing to keep the engine from detonating.

6200 max rpm, that�s prob the reason for the 23, to spool up the motor all the way. Gear ratios are 1.75, same as before. I read that most might need to drop 1�-2� in pitch to reach the max rpms.

Good looking rig Ken!
Hopefully my new Merc will be delivered in a couple weeks but until then, I'll look forward to seeing your reports.

Basscat ran an eyra with it and a 25 fury

God to see Mercury getting it out there. I want a new saltwater boat is a couple of years so the timing could be good. I am never a buyer for the first couple of year models. I like to give them a chance to work any issues out. Hopefully there will not be any on these but usually there are.

Sounds like they will be slower than the two strokes then.

So far I�ve only seen a few numbers (speeds) posted on various sites. All of them have the 4stroke being the same speed or 1 mph faster. They say the torque is the monster though.

Is it worth someone running out and buying one if their current motor is good, prob not. But when these first were being talked about, none of the performance guys wanted one because 4 strokes were slower and heavier, Merc avoided that problem. Win for them.

Blazer posted a deal on Facebook. Only a 1mph difference from old 250 to the new 250

1 mph faster or slower.

So far the post are saying faster. I can�t wait until we see some re-powers from real fisherman.

They are set for 6200 rpm

Not a record, I had my last Ranger, a z520c, up to 86 once. I should probably mention it was on I20 behind my truck, but still it was traveling at 86 mph...

In truth I had my last boat run 73.7 one time, it was January of this year, about 28 degrees, had a brand new prop and 10-12 mph tail wind by myself. Exact same boat with that prop with slight ding in one ear about month later, two guys and reverse to same headwind on a 70 degree morning would only run 64.9. So much of speed is how you load your boat, not just how much you put in it, but where you put it in your boat, which FYI is why I suspect when Moonpie Evans was official at Bassfest in Skeets boat last year all he had in front center box was a towel. weather conditions make a big difference AND that prop being pristine is huge. A little ding, or loss of cup causes prop to be inefficient. Check out Mercury Prop Slip calculate (just google that term it will pull up) and see what going from say 7-10% prop slip difference makes on speed. If you have a fixed jack plate, getting motor height is really important as well, and changes over the seasons. Per Ken A. to get absolute minimum prop slip you want your prop shaft spinning at an angle as parallel to water line as possible (Ken correct me if I�m saying this wrong). Therefore you need to get motor height where you can get lift to get boat up, but keep shaft as level as possible.