TELLefant

I got a Baja 235 Force, 454 Gen VI with Holley Commander 950 Throttle body fuel injection, 3 blade 23 Mirage prop. on Bravo 1, fresh water (Switzerland) altitude 1410 feet and it does only about 58mph with 95 octane fuel.

I want see about 75mph but overhere it's hard to find help for wishes like these.

What's possible for about 15 to 20K with good durability and fuel economy?

Thanks for your help.

Damien

Harper220

I would be very hesitant to spend 15 or 20k on your boat, when this amount probably exceeds the value of your entire boat. If you have that kind of money to spend towards the engine or upgrades, I would get top dollar from your Baja and combine that with your 15 to 20k and buy a boat that is all ready capable of 75 mph.

To go from 58 to 75 in your set up would take a different motor and then comes outdrive issues. You would probably need at least 600 to 650 hp in your boat to get 75 mph. You might get another 100 hp out of your motor and be on the safe side, if you could live with a 5-7 mph gain. I personally would go with a different boat if you have access.

BadDog

Damien,
Since you have a Gen VI I am going to assume you have either upgraded to a 454 to replaced the engine at some point. I have a Force 235 as well and it was stock with a 330 454 and ran about 57 to 59. Swapped that engine out for a 502 with Lightning headers and saw close to 70. Subsequent to that I added a B&M 250 with single 1050 and hit 80 on a good day. Freshwater with an elevation of 450.

My observations are that the blower was the best bang for the buck. It seems thought that right around 70 to 75 is where the hull just does not want to go any faster. The Force model tends to be a little heavy in the bow and at that speed it really shows. Over the winter I a dropping the boost to 4 lbs. which should put me around 75. At 80 there is no bad handling tendencies but the last 5 mph is very hard to get because you have to really air it out.

I would recommend that you get a properly setup blower and make sure it is jetted properly. As far as the economy is concerned at 3000 to 3200 I am still in vacuum and with the taller pitch prop the blower allows you to run the cruise speed is very good. I don't think yo will lose very much fuel economy.

Get as much weight out of the bow area as possible and check with Houston Prop on getting some more bow lift out of the Mirage Plus. I tried many prop and found that to be the best.

BadDog

Spending cash to upgrade versus plunking down for a new boat is a tough decesion. In us dollars I did the blower upgrade for less than 5K. Cam, heads, oil pump, oil cooler, crossover, fuel pumps etc. I suspect you are not wanting to get rid of the Force as it is a very good overall boat. Very nice cockpit area and a decent but not the best ride in rough water. You should be able to hit 75 with 600 hp. As far as your drive goes you can pull your old one off and put it in a box for the day the boat gets sold and keep whatever you buy to handle the power. An XZ should do fine. I did run my blower motor for about 10 hours on a 89 B1 with over 1000 hours on it and it did fine. With the lighter weight of the Force and no holeshots you might be OK if you have a drive shower and take it easy. B1's are cheap now so if you scrap WTF.

BadDog

BTW you will need to cut a slight notch for the Blower top pulley to clear the seat. No big deal just a small amount of shaving to fit. If you go that route I can send you some pictures of the notch. You can also put your bench seat top corners and gunnel pads on with velcro and use some different brackets to hold the bench seat in. Takes about 5 minute to slide the rear bench forward so you can get easy access to anything under the hatch.

TELLefant

Thank you guys for quick reply. Both are right ;-) It's hard to spend that much money in an old boat. But I almost have no other chance because the parking lot in the lake is just that size and boats after 1992 must have smog and noise check every year... that's the law.

You are right, I had to change the engine already 4 times... and got a Gen VI now but kept the serial no. from the original block ;-). Overhere they don't know that much about boat-enginges. But they still remember if you would have had an 'open' exhaust or through water before. What means, if I decide for a 502 and open exhaust, then I will have to build the 454 back in every 3 years to let him checked for homologation.

I also thought to replace the whole unit with this 625HP from Arizona Speed & Marine http://www.azspeed-marine.com/asenpa.html

But hard to find references about this engine. Also heard from TMP Performance in New Orleans or so... who does something simular for this quote.

http://www.tmpsl.com/custom_engines.htm