Well, from the guys i've talked to, and what it cost to rebuild my block to 461cu 560hp 550tq, it would be more.
Mesa has his 650 listed at $16k, but it still needs to be dressed + exhaust.
I agreed to his opinion to have it fwc since i'm in colder weather/water than down south.
So dressed, fwc with a SMII exhaust was 25k.
And this is my point. It always ends up being more than you think.
Hence my statement: "I'll tell you what... get back to me AFTER you have an engine built for you."

My personal experience was that we went through my 454 MAG MPI, added aluminum heads, did all the machine work, R&R, running to running for under $10K. That was 501 hp on the dyno. The only difference between my 501 hp and your 560 is the fuel injection vs carb and a different cam.

Mine also came with 40 hours of warranty, in water testing to change computer program and help with prop testing.

Just because some of the bigger names in the industry charge a lot of money to build a marine specific engine doesn't mean that everyone does. Maybe we just have it good down here with a guy who doesn't charge extra because it's for a boat. Storm, maybe you should send your engine to our guy to go through!

So it was 10k for a rebuild plus some aluminum heads. The oem parts in that motor are designed for 365hp not 500+. This why you see these high hp motors advertised so cheap. You can't put those in a 10,000lbs Cig and go punish them like a Merc factory race motor.

No, under 10K with aluminum heads running to running. And, the internal parts of a 454 MAG MPI are forged. A forged crank and decent factory rods are capable of 500 hp any day of the week. You don't need a Callies crank to make a reliable 500 - 700 hp on a naturally aspirated engine.

Storm

I just talked to Paul and he gave me the go ahead to sell the engines for 20K. If you want the build sheets we can do that. He is in TX and he has done this for 20+ years.

I understand about the confidence one gets by "going with the best" but in this case its not for me. paul will do a kick azz job on the motors.

20K, that is fully dressed?
how about headers?
Will he fly up to NY on his dime to fix it if i have a problem?

Jay, my engine was too about 10k, with the exhaust, and 1yr warranty.
But that's not new, and not 650hp.
For 650, you'd need more cubes.

I just spoke to a friend who has a KE 650 (which pulled 740dyno).
To replace his engine would be 40k.
Now I know KE is expensive, but there is a reason the big boys to to chief, Zul, Wesco, KE and the like.
My engine was done by JC, it was a great job and its still kicking hard.
I personally would never scour the country looking for the best price on an engine.
Not in my boat.
Saving $4000-5000 on an engine is petty crap compared to what this hobby/sport costs.
And saving that $ may wind up being months off the water.
I've read/heard many a horror stories about builders. I wouldn't go w/ anyone unknown w/o a great reputation to stand behind it.
You can go w/ you local guy, which is great, cuz if you got a problem, you'll just go down and personally ring his neck.
When I had a carb problem, JC came to my boat, an hours drive to work on it. Then he came back again to swap out the carb.
I actually got a reach around w/ that. :D

I can completely understand that... and will not argue that.
If you were to spend $100k on redoing your older cig, you may think differently.
You just look at what cigracing1 has done w/ his firefox.
Care to ask what he spent on his engine? :D

Yes, for more than about 500 - 550, the cubes need to get bigger. Hence the additional 5K or so for a short block. With a new short block using good parts, you can make 650 - 700 horse depending on the cubes and not stress the internals because there is no power adder. If I'm going to build a blower motor, all bets are off. Then we start talking about the need for the high end cranks and rods. The pistons would be about the same in either engine quality and money wise.

As far as my local engine guy goes, he has fixed or otherwise gone through engines from some of the big name builders that are talked about on this board more than once. As I said, some of the baddest boats around are running his stuff well above 150 mph with 40+ trouble free hours on 1100 horse engines. That speaks a whole lot more to me than a name. I went with him because of all the trouble free work he does for the big boys in our neck of the woods. I'm already out of my 40 hour warranty (only by a little), and I have pushed it hard. It hasn't skipped a beat.

OK drpete, i'll go back a bit.
75-80 could probably come close to buying this boat.
The 650hp is not 15k, but 20, and is that dressed w/ exahust?
Cuz $20k is not far from where i'm at + exhaust.
And are some of your posts missing? :D

Jay, i was gonna use mesa for my rebuild back in jan '05, but the cost of shipping to FL and back, plus not having him local made me nervous. JC did a great job, and he's the pupil and assembly man for Zul, which gave me confort. Zul won't touch anything but his own stuff.

Mesa quoted me some 475hp fwc sbc's, where all we'd need to do is swap out pistons and then add a blower. It'd be nice to have the engines rebuilt every 150hrs, going back and forth between those two combos... in a 28. :D

Storm, sorry for getting so off topic in your own thread.:angry-smiley-038:

Yeah, shipping engines around the country can get really expensive in a hurry. Then, as you said, if you have a problem, what do you do? I guess I'm a little spoiled having a guy about 2 hours away. That being said, I did order a new set of Mahle pistons & rings from a buddy that works there in NC. He set me up with the good buddy deal. I should get them in a couple of days. 1 step :rolleyes:

Thread hijacking is fun!:ernaehrung004: