When's it going to be water ready ?

Randy,I'm running the same pulleys I did before-the 4.0 made 10-11psi at manifold & 1036hp,the 3.85 made 11- 12 psi & 1057hp the 3.70 made 12-13 psi &1115hp. The motor made 657 on its own,I had the throttle body bored out,cam is 10 degrees bigger then last one,went to T&D shaft rocker arms from comp prp magnums,switched from merlin 2 block to dart big m,had heads worked on and port matched to intake manifold,had intake manifold ported slightly more,pushrods went from .080 wall to .145 wall (zero deflection). The rest of the stuff I rebuilt/relpaced was same as before,540 ci with middle of the road parts,Smitty

I've had the guy with the checkmate blow by me before like I was going backwards. Im going to keep running bravo's for now,I am getting ready to add another step in the gear treatments,I'm still negotiating the deal but it should lower the friction to near zero so drive failure will come down to strictly outright parts failure (shearing off shafts/blowing teeth off gears etc) and I'm using my boat as a testbed. I talked to a few guys about the B-maxes,thought of running my own treated gears in the lower because they still use stock merc lower gears but they have their own problems too,Smitty
here is a top secret pic of the 30 ft check w/# 6 drive in person

Went thru and checked the shaft rockers and did a leakdown test on motor to make sure everythings ok before installing plus for a baseline for future comparison yesterday before work. Got motor set in boat today and aligned,it was a PIA,I had moved the motor mounts a little last year when I installed the stellings box (which I took off when motor came out). Took 5 hours to get ok alignment just in time to race to work at last minute:mad: . Hope to get everything else done tommorrow before work,I have junior (my son) doing most of it because I have to get a transmission job done in AM. Hope to do shakedown run Sunday,Smitty

Just curious how much you got invested in a 27" boat?

I bought boat new for 65,000 on the trailer in 2000,since then I have spent 5,000$ to 20,000$ each year on drives,drive parts,motor parts, motor upgrades,props,exhaust, rigging,dyno time etc. This years freshen up/motor upgrade is at the 12,000$ mark with dyno time ane the 2 new mefi4 computers but I have alot of spare stuff accummulating too (original 502,4.500 merlin block,ported merlin heads,mefi3 computers,spare max worx drive,etc). Keep in mind too that I have ran some of the parts/motors in my boat long enough to where they were needing to be rebuilt and it wouldn't matter what size boat you have at that point you have gotten your use out of the stuff and its time to move on/rebuild. I have never for a moment thought that I would be able to recoup any money spent on these modifications,it hasn't been a investment,just a part of the price of going fast. And I know If I had a bigger boat with twins it would just cost twice as much because it would only be stock for about one ride,Smitty:evilb:

As I have also spent an exorbitant amount of money on my 25 footer, I think I can contribute, here.

There is no way to rationalise spending anything but neccessary maintainance and light bling work on any size of boat. You don´t improve the resale by much, and in most cases you reduce the number of potential buyers by making it more exotic than most people want.

It looks like Smitty enjoys the workshop hours that he puts on the boat, and the hours on the water are even more enjoyable because of the effort and creativity that was involved in getting there.

I was at a show recently where there was a Bonneville exhibit. How many ways people how found to go faster, mostly with limited budgets, but lots of passion, creativity and many, many workshop hours.

Stephen,its good to hear from you.Its true We have both spent silly amounts of money in our quest to go fast BUT the speed and power is the rush we are looking for. 2 years ago my buddy bought a 28 foot 1995 checkmate with a factory 525 sc merc motor,I have ALWAYS loved the factory blue motors. I couldn't wait to drive his boat and see how it felt. He gladly let me because he fully trust my abilitys and experience handling high performance singles. It was a total dissapointment,it ran mid 60's and just felt like it had absolutley no acceleration after years of driving my lighter boat with much more hp. I knew then I could NEVER go back to having a boat that didn't have big power. I have thought a few times with the money I have spent I could have bought a bigger boat with twins but I know I would end up having to modify the motors in it also or buy one with big power and the cost to keep it running would be double what I have spent along with the 1500-2000$ a month payment which would be out of my reach. My boat goes so fast from 40 to 85 you would think it had nitrous. I have contemplated building a twin motor to what I have in my boat and re-assembling my original motor and selling my boat and moving up to a 35 or 37 foot boat ,dropping the twins in it and having the originals around for the day I need to sell it and I still might do it one day but for now I will just beat the pizz out of mine:p ,Smitty

I to have spent a ton of money on mine over the last 17yrs.I just about have all the stolen parts replaced with new.I sleep with the new 2'' shortie its polished this time:p .its so cool :p . but need to order a cab and thinking about going back to mm steering new which would be over the winter. also if I get back to work this winter I just might strip the rest of my boat and buy a 28 joker hull blank.at 670hp I AM RUNNING 83 in the baja the joker it would be about 90. I think they are breaking 100 with 800 to 900 hp wow. if money is tight I MIGHT put a stellings x box on and move it up 1''. I don't want to refill my ex pipes again:rolleyes: once was enough. yep waiting for trim rams now gave a friend 700 big ones over 3 weeks ago but hes slow:rolleyes: .well its sunday and Iam sitting home on here :p . art

2000 272 Baja...$65K

Approx $60k to make and maintain 1100 HP.

The look on your face when Smtty blows by your ass with a Baja.......

PRICELESS!!!