Anyone have the LY6 engine? How does it compare to the 8.1?
 

I'm not an engine expert. I live at high altitude; my current boat has the Indmar 8.1 big block. I'm looking at a 2008 x35 and it has the 400 HP LY6 Vortec 6000 engine. So smaller than mine. Anyone have any feedback for me on this engine? I"m trying to figure out how much I would lose in power compared to what I currently have. I am more interested in torque and less interested in top-end speed. We don't like to wrap the boat out going as fast as we can but I like to load it up and still easily pull a skier or wakeboarder out the water. Trying to figure out if the LY6 will do that at 4500 feet or if I need to stick with the 8.1 models.

Most of it will come down to the prop. switching it out will pretty much take care of any issues you will have. General ideas to consider, A bigger motor wont have to work as hard to produce the torque (keep in mind this is pretty broad) and this means less wear and tear on the bigger motor. If you are familiar with diesels, think about the 7.3L powerstroke vs. the 6.0L powerstroke.

Do some searches about motors in X-stars. We've discussed these motors a lot. We've had 2 big block X-stars and 2 LY6 boats. The LY6's get the job done at sea level, but struggle when heavily weighted at anything over 3k feet. By heavily weighted I mean at least 2500lbs+people. That's with a reprop. The LY6 will get the job done, but you'll have nothing to spare. The 8.1 is a monster. We had reliability issues with ours, but the motors are amazing power wise.

That said, you may have a different experience with a X35, but the X-star is a very inefficient hull design. The wake is amazing, but they require a ton of power to make it happen.

We're going with a Malibu LSV for this season and have spec'd it with the 6.0. In that hull is should be plenty with their optional high altitude prop.

Martin,

I believe a guy I know on here has an X-Star with upgraded ballast with the LY6 that lives in Grand Junction and we have ridden it at Horsetooth near Fort Collins and I think he loves his, I don't think he has had any issues. send him a pm ryand121. we had like 8 people and full ballast including extra and it took a bit to get on plane but it seemed fine.