300 ray

I will start by saying that I am new to this forum and would greatly appreciate any help that i can get! I am A GM performance technician at a large dealership in Central N.Y. and do alot of boat maintenance for people on the side.(have been working on boats since a teen). Most of my experience is in the Cruiser market with moderately tuned inboard power. Now that I have given you all a little insight on myself lets get to the reason I am posting this thread. Roughly 4 years ago a buddy of mine from our marina bought a 1996 Envision PIZAZZ 26. The boat is in beautiful condition and only shows 290 hours. When he bought it he was told that the 454 that was in it was worked to roughly 415hp. The boat is relatively heavy(so it seems) and has never really performed the way I thought it should, ok top end 65ish but a slug out of the hole. Boat has the nickname from the fountains on the lake as the TURTLE!! The engine recently appears to have blown a head gasket(no compression #1 cyl) We brought the boat home and tonight pulled the motor. I am taking it to work 2-morrow and will begin tearing down. This is what is known about the motor and i will add specifics after the tear-down. Looks to be the stock mercruiser bottom-end, square port iron heads,crane anodized roller rockers, victor intake, Holley 850 dual-feed carb, Mallory electronc ignition with crane cams ignition box, corsa exhaust with CMI aluminum ex. manifolds. I believe engine is cammed but until toredown wont know how extensive. Drive is a Bravo 1 With a 3 blade 23 pitch mirage ( Was turning 5100ish at WOT).The owner wants to wake this thing up but doesnt want to sacrifice driveability, and wants to do it on a budget. I am looking for input on proven top-end/bottom-end configurations that can accomplish this on a budget. Its obvious that these boats arent off-shore racing boats but we just want to make her respectable. Thank you all very much for any info. Dan

rchevelle71

iTrader: (1)

Sounds to me that that 454 wasnt very strong to begin with since it was turning a 23 mirage to 5100, my 225 carb outboard does that I dont have spcifics on internals, but many here do, and will help you pick the parts to make good HP, I am assuming # 1 would be a new FORGED rotating Assy, follwed by a good cam, better heads(if $$ allows it) and intake/carb package.

300 ray

sorry i misspoke on the prop. The wheel is a 22-4 blade bravo-1. Dan