ratman

i think i found a boat i want to buy, it has a sbc and an aplha drive. i was wondering how much hp that alpha will handle. thx in advance for any info, ratman

10x

Rat...... My buddy has a 93, maybe 94, 95 18ft Donzi with an alpha and a sbc. He pulled the engine, did a mild rebuild with forged pistons, Edelbrock aluminum heads, a fairly mild hyd cam, and a 6-71 Dyer blower with twin 600 holleys.
Never had it on the dyno, but I would say it's probably makin atleast 450-475 hp.
After some hard running, when you kill the engine, if you splash water on the top of the drive, it'll sizzle off !!!
He's blistered the paint off the top of the drive. And he even made a custom drive shower for it too.

He's easy on the throttle from a start, but does alot of WOT running, but always slows down to let the drive cool down.

He's yet to break that drive, although the boat never airs the water, as he only runs it on very calm inland lakes. After about 70 mph, this boat chime walks so bad that I kicked his foot off the throttle pedal to get him to slow down. It's the scariest boat that I've ever been in, and I've driven a few 160 mph V-drives.

Anarchy Powerboats

Sissy
JK

tomas_wallin

What drive oil do your buddy use? If the drive gets that freaking hot he should try some other oil more suitable for the setup.

10x

Funny, that's exactly what he said. I'm tellin you what.......... this boat scared the livin $hit out of me, and that's hard to do.

10x

Not really sure, I think it's probally a Merc oil cause I see the Quicksilver oil containers in his shop.

ratman

you'de have to wear depends if you were gonna ride in my cig

ratman

if i buy the one im looking at i'll buld a 383 or a 406 if i can find a nice 400 block 450 hp would be my target. i'll put a drive shower on from the git go, thx, ratman

10x

My buddy does'nt go here on OSO. He lives on a farm out in the middle of where god lost his shoes. He has TERRIBLE cable service, it takes a couple minutes just to download a pic, that's why he don't do this puter stuff.
If you'd like, I'll call him and tell him that you might want to talk to him about his boat. I'm sure he'd like that. Let me know, and I'll get you his #
Frank

BTW, I'll take ya up on that ride whenever we get down to Fla. Won't need the depends. Remember, I've got a 33 Fountain, and if I can withstand all the beat'n around we get here on lake Michigan, A ride in the ocean in a great rough water boat like you have will be a treat.

Iggy

An Alpha will hold up to 400-450HP as long as you use a synthetic oil (changed often), a drive shower to keep it cool, and never-ever do WOT starts or fly the boat.