the motor is in the boat and the numbers are in!
 

Back on labor day a chain of events (call it bad luck) resulted in the commencement of the process of rebuilding my 1995 502 Mag EFI. The problem began with a bad intake manifold and continued from there. Everything that could have gone wrong did, and I have been without my boat for nearly 4.5 months!

The rebuild consisted of:

boring block to 509 ci
high compression pistons
roller rockers
inconnel valves
roller cam
new intake
vortech flamer arrestor
reprogrammed ECU
new higher flow injectors
CMI headers (got rid of the silent choice)

Yesterday was the sea trial - and the performance numbers were impressive.

Before (with only EMI Thunder exhaust)
23P Bravo 3 blade - 66 - 67 @ 5150 rpm

Now (with above mods)
24P 4 Blade - 77 @ 5100 rpm
25P 3 Blade (used Mirage) - 76 @ 5000 rpm

Testing conditions were relatively rough - 3 to 5's and above performace was achieved with tabs "down".

Once the motor is broken in we are going to lab finish the 25P 3 blade - that and better water conditions should help me get near or break 80 mph.

Best part is that cruise is now around 55 mph.

BajaDaze - its time to meet up at Shell Island.... :D

ALRIGHT! Great News DirtLawyer! I've been anticipating this day to find out what the numbers were going to be! That sounds like an awesome set-up in that boat. I'll bet it's been a long, drawn-out 4 1/2 months too!

Now we can finally meet up out there! If I remember correctly you're a rum guy, right? Did you get the motor worked locally? What kind of HP do you you think you have in there now? Have you ever been to Fish Tales? It's at the Harborage Marina in St. Pete and it's a great little place to hang out and pull the boat in to. Look forward to seeing you out there. :cool: :D :)

Nick -

I get all of my work done by the guys at Lightning Bay Performance Marine - they are located adjacent to FishTales and the Harborage on 14th Ave South. Lightning Bay sells Eliminator boats and has some pretty awesome used/consignment hot boats. GREAT service. They really worked with me on this motor - they could've sold me a blower and a mild rebuild, but instead we did some research, talked with Teague and the rest of the builders, and came up with an essentially HO HP500. I can't say enough about Lightning Bay.

From what we can tell (did not dyno the motor) I am pushing between 525 and 550 hp. I'll definitely be "feathering" the throttle out of the hole and watching reentry after launching, but if worse comes to worse, I'll just replace the Bravo One gears with either IMCO or diesel gears - 525 to 550 hp is not extreme power for the drive, but it will require some care...

As for FishTales - know it well. I'll probably be up that way to pick up the Shooter on Saturday (if its nice). If your around let me know - we could meet up for a run and a rum....

Its a good feeling knowing that the motor is cranking and ready to roar!

Excellent Dirt!
Yep, I know lightning Bay very well. I pass by it every time I go to my boat. There's always something there that catches my eye. I've heard many great things about them from lots of people. They run the "How Sweet It Is" Boat, right?

Saturday sounds cool! You know if the weather is nice, I'll be out cruising around. IF...Ya right...Of course it'll be nice :D ;)

Well, once again great to hear your news and hope it's everyhting you wanted. Talk to you later! Keep in touch about the weekend!
:cool:

Hey DL congrats on the motor rebuild. I hear ya about chain of events leading up to it, I'm going through the same thing right now! :rolleyes: I'ts nice to see your numbers though, gives me some sort of insight on what mine will be like. Keep us posted on how things go.

Tank

Tank - good luck on your rebuild as well - justy remember - its not the big things that slow you down its the little things that eat you up.... the major work was easy - fine tuning the motor was the tough part - spent a lot and time with AZ Machine fine tuning the ECM, but it was worth it. Looking forward to running it this weekend in better seas with the tabs up....

Tank - what are the details of your rebuild? going w/ a whipple/procharger?

o.k. Guy's......count me in on the run, and the rum !!! But give me a month or so to get my boat back together!!!! Dave Warden

How much $$ did it set you back for your rebuild. Looking to do the same to my boat.

bajabob - you should expect to apy between 5 - 7K depending upon what all you do. At a minimum, I would replace the cam, the valves/springs, and go with roller rockers. I ttok it quite a bit further with the high comp pistons, the CMI exhaust, ect.; but I alos have a "barter deal" with my service shop (i.e. trade services for services).

The performance gains were incredible - the boat was running 73 - 75 in a 1 - 2's over the weekend with rpm to spare. The acceleration between 3000 - 4000 rpm is killer. Once I break the motor in and lab the prop, 80 should be attainable.

Uhhh oohhh.....good to see others are dumping big $$ into power as well.

Just buttoned up my 509 yesterday. Going to the dyno this or next week. Looking for about 600hp and somewhere in that range for Tq. Long block is to balanced and blueprinted to factory specs. I twisted every bolt on it.....not sure whether that is good or bad!! I'll post more later and will also post all results. Up against the clock, literally, so gotta run....check this out....the library is frickin' closing.....that's f-ing right, I am sitting in a library right now for s***s sake!! Oh well, gotta do what ya gotta do. Make matters worse, I am about 200 miles from home. Now you know why i have not logged on but about 4-5 times in the last 2 mos. HAHAHAHA. Oh well. I'm now getting throw out of the Bluffton, Ohio PUblic Library!!!! No ****, I really am, better shut up now........!!!! A4

DL,

That sounds like your boat is going to scream!! What kind of little problems did you have when fine tunning your motor?

I started out taking my boat down to get the drive worked on. Then found out the coupler was gone. So I decided to put a merc 525 with B&M blower and super chiller in this motor had been worked a little and was dynoed right around 650 HP. I Sold my 454 to Audiofn and got the 525 from my friend. Theeeeeen I found out it had water that had sat in two of the cylinders. so here we go...got to have the thing remilled new pistons, bored out, rings, etc etc etc......so 10g's later, we'll see if it runs good here soon hopefully! :rolleyes:

Allan4 - Bluffton, Ohio - I had a good friend that went to school there... I knew of high schools that were bigger than Bluffton - good education though....

Tank - all sorts of little problems - (i) fine tuning the fuel regulator; (ii) wrong valve springs sent and installed; (iii) fine tuning the timing, (iv) ECU was reprogrammed 2x; etc., etc. In the end it was all worth it.

Mike C - the #'s were on the speedo, which, when last checked, was almost dead on with the GPS. I'll probably check it with the GPS once she's broken in. The last run I tried to keep the WOT bursts to under 30 seconds and only ran it hard a few times.

As for Gasparilla - we're going with some friends on their SeaRay - not taking the Baja down to the parade - too many idiots on the water that day - may be out on Saturday. LAst weekend we stopped by Fishtales to see if you or BajaDaze were around, but the place was pretty much deserted.... great food though.... We definitely need to meet up - I may be out on Sunday afternoon - I'll let you know later this week.

- Bryan

What's-up, Dirt?
We looked for you, and were in and out of the marina(Fish-tales) most of the day. It felt like I was a damn boat-cheuffer that day. Sorry I missed you Saturday!

I did however, hear/see a 27'ish Baja that was tearing up the Bay on the St. Pete side near the pier Sat afternoon. We were just floating around listening to tunes and soaking in the sunshine about 1 1/2 miles in front and slightly south of the pier. We tried to go after this boat, but he/you/they didn't seem like they noticed us. It had a red stripe from bow to-stern and seemed to have a little wave in it(much like Baja's). It also sounded very nice. Is this your boat?

Mike - thanks for the GPS offer, but I already have one - I was just too lazy to get new batteries for it, plus I didn't want to run the hell out of the boat the first time I got it. I knew that if I had the GPS with me, I would be tempted to get the best #'s out of it that I could - I'm taking it easy on the new motor for about the first 25 hours... then its time to open her up and really see what she'll do. I'm currently running a 25P mirage 3 blade. We tried a 24P Bravo 4 blade and the boat got really squirrely - the boat has a tendency to carry the bow pretty well, and with the added stern lift of the 4 blade we weren't real happy with the way she handled. I am thinking of going to a Hydromotive 3 blade and/or lab finishing the mirage.

Nick - we were in the water at 1:30 - went to Eggmont Key for a while and then went to Fishtales at about 3:30 or so - we were there, outside on the picnic tables until probably 4:30 - 5:00. The boat was moored off of the dockmaster's "shack". As for the one tearing up the bay - sounds like it was probably me - the boat has red hull sides (white deck and white hul bottom) with a white/yellow ribbon stripe - if it was loud, it was definitely me.... the new cam/pistons/cmi headers really make this boat rock....

Best part of the day out was putting her in the water. We dropped her in at the Municipal Marina (near the Pier). At the ramp next to us was a 18+ or - hydrostream O/B ski/tunnel. The owner, his wife and daughter were getting ready for a day of boating and tubing when we pulled in. Picture this: his daughter (about 12 yrs old or so) was standing on the dock between our boats. When we go the boat into the water, I fired her up for the first time, and the poor little girl nearly sh*t herself! Just a bit of a different sound from her daddy's o/b - think she's still in therapy.....

Gotta love it loud and fast!

That definately sounds like the boat I saw. Take my word for it...IT's LOUD. The closest you came to us was about a half a mile and it sounds sweet. We heard you coming out of the Harborage channel, but never would have caught you in time.

Funny story, Man! It's great when you get a reaction like that! I would have dropped to the ground laughing! I get a kick out of doing the same thing at the marina when someone is sitting in a boat right behind us. Though not as loud as yours, I'm pretty sure I've soiled some others' pants in the past. :D :D :D

DL,

Is your motor natural or are you running a blower? superchiller?

Tank

Nick - glad you could hear me - my goal was to heard 1st then seen..... wait until you hear the idle - very smooth, but with a hint of that throbbing "surge"...... this definitely is NOT my father's oldsmobile

Tank - all natural my friend - was a little concerned with the reliabilty of a blower motor... my engine builder recommended going with the big cam, high comp heads and pistons, etc. Looking at his past successes with this formula, who was I to argue..... besides, if you're going with a blower on a 502, you still need to do a lot of the same internal upgrades....

I hear ya brother. I'm a little concerned with the whole blower thing too, but what the f*ck! We'll see what happens. The motor started out as a merc blown 525. I toyed with the idea of just taking the blower and the superchiller off and running it natural. But I think I'll just leave it and see what happens. :)

Tank

Tank - if it started its life as a 525SC then it should have the "bullet-proof" internal components.... if not, crank it up, run the sh*t out of it and then rebuild it next year.... hell, its only $$$

if its a stock merc SC I believe that there was one maintenance issue that a lot of people overlooked - apparently there are two oil fills for the s/c - one in the front, one in the rear - from waht I have heard, if you maintain them properly the 525SC is a realiable motor - good luck.

DL,

Yea, it has all the killer parts in it. It built up and punched out already once, But the water in the two cylinders was a little bit of a prob. Especially since it was salt water and now it is salt rust! Frickin stelling headers!!!

I've heard that about the oil inlets on the blowers. I plan on keeping an eye on it. ;)

Tank

got some pictures of the "509" before she was reinstalled.... hopefully this is the correct link.....
www.ofoto.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=642298452680_57151852303&US=0& collid=30451852303

That thing is sweeeeet! What kind of headers are those. Very nice man!

Tank

thanks tank - my guys at Lightning Bay do a great job.

The headers are CMI Platinum series - and they are loud - big difference from the EMI Thunder exhaust I used to have on it....

DL what did you do with your old exhaust?

Tank - already sold them along with the silent choice system to help pay for the CMI's....

DAMMMMM! I need some exhaust! :D

Damn Dirt,
That thing looks awesome. Those guys at Lightning Bay do some great work. SWEET :D :D

thanks Nick - the best part is, she runs as good as she looks.....

Let me know if you're around nextg weekend - we'll try to meet up again at Fishtales.

I'm sure it does!
If it runs as good as it sounds, you got a winner!

We will be around next weekend! I'll keep in touch to arrange a meeting!
Take Care! :cool:

Nice engine package Dirtlawyer. I saw your boat during the the repair stage. My 38 Baja was at Lightning Bay having the new 496's put in at the same time yours was there. I had the same problem that you had with the intake manifold. We do more cruising so I elected to go with new. You are right about those guys...They do good work. There were a few problems but for the most part they are very thorough and do a neat installation. Hope to see you running on the Bay!

kr1276 - thanks - know your boat as well - you got the two 496 motors shipped in, right?

nice looking boat - were you at Gasparilla last weekend - Mike and I thought that we saw you, but couldn't remember if you had a radar arch or not...

definitely need to hook-up on the h2o sometime soon...

That was mine waitng on the engines being shipped in...and it does have an arch on it. I had it made by the guy who builds all the arches for Wellcraft in Bradenton. He came to my house 3 times to make sure he got it right. I then had a guy from Palm Harbor do the bimini and tie it in to the arch with the same track they use on the Sea Rays. It has made our boat so much more functional than before. We like to take weekend trips to South Seas,Longboat,Venice,Marco etc... We did not take our boat to Gasparilla as my wife is in the all female Krewe "Bonney-Read" so we were in the parade and hosted the Krewe Friday Night at our house which was about 70 people. We also had a house on Bayshore for a private party before/during/after the parade. Were you on one of the Eliminators with Mike?

kr1276 - went with Mike, but we took the 29 SeaRay - didn't want to beat up an Eliminator... one helluva party though...

Yo dirt, nice looking rig man. I'll have to post the pictures of my 509 as soon as I can.

the motor is sitting at the dyno shop waiting in line right now. I was out there yesterday to put a few finishing touches on it. It's a black block, alumunim top end (heads and intake), red powder coated v covers, black Gil manis with 6" stainless risers, blue MSD 8mm plug wires, plus I am going to paint the water pump red and dress up the coolng set ups(not that you can see it the the Outlaw when it is installed, but ya know how it is). What power did you make with your motor. Mine sounds very similiar aside form the fact I have Holley 850 Double pumper sitting on top.

Tank, any news? I may not be able to respond to your response becasue I am running short on time again. I'm in the damn library in Bluffton again, traveling agian and I have to stay here tonight. So , this library has been my OSO headquarters....3 times in the last month or so. However, just bought a laptop and will be hooked up soon. Later boys, keep the economy rolling with your insane spending....I know I will!! :D