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My boat is still available. It may be around by boatshow season in February/March. I plan to winterize it and moth ball it soon for the winter. It's paid off, so at least I don't have to worry about making payments!
The LS3 is a big upcharge - something like $6500. As for the necessity of the big motor, let's put it this way. All b.s. aside. I run 1000lb bags in the rear hatches and the 1235 prop. I'm not much over sealevel here in Chattanooga. When we are learning new stuff or just want to take an easy set, we drop the wedge, fill the factory ballast + the front pnp sac and the rear bags a little over half full (probably 600lbs). With the big motor, the boat gets up and on plane quick. In my experience, the 335 does almost as well under these conditions so long as there are not a ton of people in the boat. Now, sometimes we have more people in the boat and/or we fill the rear sacs to about 750lbs each. That extra 300lbs in the back seems to make a big difference. The boat planes, but it takes a little bit, and the throttle is punched. My friends who run 750's in the rear of their A22's with the 335, they have to add weight to the front or have people run up front to get the boat to plane out (this is with the 1235 prop) if they use the wedge.
When some of my friends come in town to ride who are, or were, pro or semi-pro, or just go huge, we fill the rear sacs as full as possible, fill everything else, throw a 1k bow triangle in the front, drop the wedge, and set the speed at 24.2mph. In my experience, the 335 will not get that weight setup on plane with the 1235 or the core prop. Even the 400 works pretty dang hard to get the boat up to speed wih that setup. Once the boat's on plane, it's fine. The results do justify the means though, because the wake with that setup is friggin amazing.
Coming from a few SANTE 230's with the ZR409, I find that the 400 uses a little less fuel than the ZR in the 230's did. However, the 230's were heavier, bigger, boats. I'm sure the 335 is somewhat more efficient for just running around and for factory ballast. It's probably a toss up when running the pnp bags too though.
I'm ordering a 2012 as soon as my boat sells. If Axis offered the 335, 400 and 450, I'd stick with the 400, because mine has not burned a drop of oil, and has performed flawlessly for 84 hours. With the choices available for next year, I'll just pony up the extra dough and get the 450. I've always erred on the side of having extra power most of the time so that I have enough on the rare occasion that I really need it.
FWIW, I'm not knocking the 335 at all. That's a great motor! It does exactly what it is intended to do, and if you run the factory ballast, wedge, standard pnp bags, and 1235, you will likely be completely satisfied. The big motor is for those people who just want the option to slam their boats to the max, are at super duper high altitude, or just want the power just to have it.
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