Mercury Marine 250 Pro XS or Mercury Racing 250 Sport XS?

[FSH4BAS]

Looking at the numbers it would appear that these two motors are identical aside from solid motor mounts, LU's, decals and warranty. Question is whether or not the Sport XS is a handbuilt motor like most of the previous Merc Racing motors. I would venture to say that if there isn't enough difference in the two motors, performance wise, to justify making two versions, then the Merc Racing Sport XS would not be in production much longer. There has to be something I'm missing here. Just the warranty is enough to take the Pro XS over the Sport. The only thing I could see is that a hull capable of 90+ mph would benefit from the sportmaster gearcase. The thoroughbred name tag of Mercury Racing is cool, but it's almost as if Mercury is trying to tell us something. Maybe a Super 250 is in the works that will really seperate it from it's twin stable mate?

[Largemouthlou]

The biggest difference is like you mentioned, lower unit, warrenty and solid mounts, power heads appear to be the same.

[colreb2000]

<table width="90%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center><tr><td>Quote, originally posted by Largemouthlou &raquo;</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">The biggest difference is like you mentioned, lower unit, warrenty and solid mounts, power heads appear to be the same.</td></tr></table>

What about the computer....is it the same...or does one have a different fuel curve, rev limiter, etc.?

[Tim Powell]

Lou is dead on, no differences other than that.

my 2010 250 Pro XS TM (comes with 1.75 Torquemaster) has Mercury Racing 250xs stamp on the computer, also my fuel rails say Mercury Racing.

I sure like that 5 year warranty tho

[Hydrilla Gear]

Go for the 5 year warranty and swap the lower after purchase if needed..

Thats what I would do if I were me

[knight1]

you can buy the pro xs with a sportmaster and still get the 5 yr warranty,and the pro xs does have solid mounts...and i believe the exhaust tuner has a different part number in the xs and the pro xs.

[Hydrilla Gear]

<table width="90%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center><tr><td>Quote, originally posted by knight1 &raquo;</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">you can buy the pro xs with a sportmaster and still get the 5 yr warranty,and the pro xs does have solid mounts...and i believe the exhaust tuner has a different part number in the xs and the pro xs.</td></tr></table>

Then why have the two motors?

[knight1]

i cant answer that

[Meyers]

The answer from Mercury is this:

You cannot order a Pro XS with the sportmaster...only the Verado or the Torquemaster. However, you will find many dealers that will swap out the lower for the sportmaster for a cost. In fact, my 250 Pro XS has the sportmaster case and I paid extra for the swap when I bought it.

The Pro XS has "semi hard mounts" that are almost identical to the hard mounts on the XS.

They are made in the same place and the differences above and the warranty are the major differences.

[hubert davis]

If the powerheads r so close to being the same then why can't u get a 5yr war with the xs. Surely there is a reason to offer it for one and not the other.

[Largemouthlou]

Have to believe it is due to the sportmaster low water pick up, they worry about more motors frying due to lack of water pressure.

In my eyes that thinking is wrong due to the smart craft guardian, that shuts ya down for most common problems..

[marty92xrd]

<table width="90%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center><tr><td>Quote, originally posted by hubert davis &raquo;</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">If the powerheads r so close to being the same then why can't u get a 5yr war with the xs. Surely there is a reason to offer it for one and not the other.</td></tr></table>

Mainly because one comes out of Racing, one comes out of Production. The engines are the same except for the differences Lou mentioned.

The Pro XS comes with a 3 year warranty, the XS comes with a 2 year warranty. The days of the 5 year warranty are gone as of now.

[Bullet 20xrd]

Isn't the dyno horsepower different from the racing to the pro?

[marty92xrd]

<table width="90%" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center><tr><td>Quote, originally posted by Bullet 20xrd &raquo;</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">Isn't the dyno horsepower different from the racing to the pro? </td></tr></table>

No sir.

[55excl]

Both motors make 294.7 horse power @ 6000rpm. ?

[hubert davis]

Are the Rev-limiters the same? Are the race motors put together with a little more precision than the production line pro xs? Do they have the same bearings and rings in both motors? Sorry bout all the question but im fixin buy me a new boat and motor so im trying to weigh out the diffrences. Thanks for all the good info so far.

[F150owner]

I know for that the rev limiter is 6200 on the '08 250XS and on the '08 250 ProXS. Both share the same ECU. My rev limiter sticker shows 6000; however, the ECU will go to 6200 before it goes into guardian mode. The reason I know this is that a bud has a 250XS and the rev limiter would kick in at 5800 rpm instead of 6100 or 6200. He found out that Merc had misprogrammed some ECUs and reflashed his ECU to the correct max rpm under warranty.

Having said that, Merc shows the new 250 SportXS with a "full throttle" 6000 rpm. Who knows that the correct max rpm is??

update: I learned this week the 250XS rev lmt is slightly higher than 6200 but I forgot the exact rpm.


Modified by Duane Harper at 11:09 PM 7/14/2011

[XRD]

My 2011 250 Sport XS has seen a little over 6200 without going into gaurdian.

[55excl]

What does gaurdian mean stop making more rpm's

[Largemouthlou]

If there are faults with the motor that the pcm can detect it will go into guardian mode and limit HP and RPM's, how much your limited will depend on what went wrong.. Also if you have a mec moniter it will give you indications of what went wrong.