wfyehl

Jeff P31,

I understand about the ratio of money to speed. I just want to make smart upgrades to these engines to help both efficiency and speed.

Also, I have a friend that just purchased a 1989 31' formula with the same engines as I have. I would be nice to be able to keep up with him and/or pull away from him (or not have him pull away from me).

I won't be able to do any work to the engines for a couple of years, but would like to have an idea of what will work and fit in my boat.

Thanks,
Bill

Full Force

iTrader: (5)

TURBOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wfyehl

I wish I could fit them. I can barely wedge in 4" exhaust tips. I'm not sure how close upgraded exhaust will be to my cockpit floor. Also, I'm not even sure I can fit an upgrade intake manifold.

Formula31 has a torker II intake manifold on his, so that would fit.

Turbos would bump the cool factor up a couple of notches, though.

Bill

Full Force

iTrader: (5)

Sawzall!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Velocity Vector

iTrader: (4)

Does Jeff know his HP limits or what.

B one

Chromecat has a bunch of parts you might want to consider. He has a list of them in this thread 502 projects.

wfyehl

I looked at that thread, but I have a Gen IV BBC. I don't think they interchange.

Bill

jw454

I have been building Chevys for both high performance auto and marine for years, particularly the BBC. All the intake and camshaft upgrades wont do you a bit of good without aquiring a true high performance exhaust and unfortunately, that will be the most expensive upgrade. I'm not talking about "performance manifolds", but an actual water jacketed header system is the only way to make your BBC have breath ing potential. Always remember that an engine cannot breath in what it cant get out and 3 or 4 inch exhaust after the little 2x2in. path that is cast into the riser is a mute point. Besides that, the stock exhaust manifolds themselves are a nightmare from any performance standpoint. On one bank you have #'s 8-4 exhausting one after another which causes all kinds of trouble with the incoming intake charge on the subsequent cylinder and on the other bank you have #'s 5 and 7 doing the same thing only worse because they are right next to each other. The other thing with stock manifolds is all the exhaust is dumping into a common "log", litteraly smashing into a wall and then following a torturous path, to find it's way out. When exhaust pressure is present, a contamination of the fresh intake charge will occur during overlap. It seems a waste to worry about performance upgrades unless the exhaust problem is addressed and you said that you have the 330HP engine which means you have peanut port heads that wont deliver any horsepower past 4500rpm in a 454. An aluminum intake wouldn't hurt in that it would take some weight off the engine and improve the intake flow slightly. Also, as you know, Alpha's aren't by any means a strong drive and I dont really know how much they will take before they self destruct. Sorry for the long winded reply, I'm just trying to save you some money and disapointment. JW

scarab31

What would the 496 manifolds and risers provide???? I've heard that they will improve mid-range torque through better exhaust flow efficiency??? You would also drop a bunch of weight if you had the aluminum 496 manifolds. I'm curious since I have stock 454 mags in my Scarab and would like to try and squeeze 40 to 50 hosepower potentially out of each engine.

Full Force

iTrader: (5)

I am running the 496 stuff on mine, I make about 450 hp, Iw as told by alot of people that they support up to 500-550 hp easily.
The 496 Manifolds are actually pretty nice, seperate runners into a big 4" riser