Hi, I just had to come back and tell you how happy this has made me.

This is the first engine I have built. I blue printed my clearances and used a balanced assembly.

It absolutely rips when asked to and it has good manners at the docks. The toughest thing is resisting pushing the stick ahead for a shot of acceleration.
Seems to be good on fuel too. We went around 25 miles. Though to be honest I didn't run it very hard, there was so much boat chop (July 4th) that I mostly just ran around on a lowish plane at around 2800 to 3000 rpm.
I like how it sounds above 3000 rpm. Really comes on song as it gets past that point. At 4500 it still had some throttle left, but I came up on someone and had to chill.
I went up 2" in pitch to a stainless 21" Michigan Wheel Apollo XHS that I had saved from my last boat. It feels good back there. I'll have to run it to wide open and see how it matches up.
I put some Amsoil Severe Gear 75w110 in the Alpha, but I'll still roll off easy to keep my drive together.

The previous engine is a 350 mag. It would just barely turn a 19" prop to 4550 shoving that 21 degree deadrise 4000 lb lump. Time to plane was not that quick. But it has tbi truck heads, so I guess I should not be surprised, with their reputation for running out of breath early.
Previous owner said he bought the heads the year before. He said he needed them but didn't explain why. The heads have new exhaust with them. I bet the exhaust rotted and killed the previous heads. Too bad he didn't go vortec.
I'm torn between selling the 350 and keeping it in case I ever ditch the Formula and want to keep the 383.