Nice job. Can't wait to see final numbers both dyno and water. Some good ideas for when I redo my 272. Still undecided between 383s and 355s. Will definitely do bravos and completely redo bilge area.

If anyone has pros an cons between the 2. Love to hear it. 383s obviously more power and my guess is slightly less in the longevity dept.

Diego and I have talked about this. Either is going to be strong with the 383 inherently able to produce higher torque numbers due to the stroke. The slight advantage that the 355 has is the ability to rev more quickly and produce less wear due to the shorter stroke and less piston travel.

All this considered....if you're starting with a clean slate and moving to Bravo anyway...you must take a look at building twin LS motors from 6.0/6.2 truck base engines. They are becoming more plentiful having been in production for ten years and are far superior in all respects to Vortecs. These engines can easily produce 500+ horsepower reliably due in no small part to the 6: bolt "splayed" main bearing caps. Parts to marinize these engines are available from Marine Power, Indmar, Crusader and others.

The source vehicles for these are Cadillac Escalade 2002~2013, GMC Yukon Denali 2002~2013, Chevy Silvarado with the High Performance option and of course Corvettes and Camaro's.

I am an old school Drag Racer and keep an eye on what the kids that run the streets are doing. The trend is to find an old "Box" Impala or Malibu rear wheel drive and transplant one of these LS engines complete with the computer and transmission. I occasionally go to Moroso Drag Strip here in West Palm to stay in touch and I have seen several of these rigs running high 10's with near stock motors!! I asked what their parts sources were to build these cars and was told to check craigslist.

So....
http://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/pts/3331374533.:evilb:

About $2000 puts you in business.

I will build a pair these for my next project without a question.

I like the ls series. Going back to the smaller in the camaros an firebirds. They were a vast improvement over the lt1 which I had and was near and dear to my heart. Lol.

I don't figure try are built to run with carbs. I don't wanna add anymore under the hatch. Like the simplicity of carbs. Don't wanna switch to fuel injection. Thinking of some nice 400ish or more 355s with bravos. Like you got. Not doing the motors anytime soon. Mine run strong right now an she's clocked a best of 63 on GPS. Avg 58-60. Right now it's about cosmetics. Interior. Gonna redo some stuff on transom to clean it up from removing silent thunder box and o with a teak platform.

Sorry to go on. Back to your thread Diego!! Lets see some numbers!!

PM to you...

Hate to cop out here, but I cant really say as I had them and billett tab pump housings put in at the time of the build.
I remember wincing at the checkbox on the order form though.

As for building engines for boats there are so many great combos its hard to wrong these days.

Whatever gives you the most torque from idle at 800 RPM to 5500-6 RPM for the least amount of money is what I go for.

Guys get way to caught up in the HP# when they should be working on the torque curve.

That usually means the most cubes I can get for my dollar - the smaller engines almost (not always) have to spin faster to make the power , and to get to high rpm you have to work all the way through the curve. Its just easier to go as big as you can when it comes to boats.

My "old fashioned" 23 degree 406 with a carb was built for cheap (for sure with good parts) and blasts my 21ft tunnel to 90. A rare plateau for a pump gas n/a small block boat.

I agree with Sprink- there nothing like effortless cruising. having a bunch left under the stick while sailing along is an amazing feeling.

I PREDICT YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE YOUR 383'S!

Cant wait to hear how she runs - give us some sugar buddy!

Uncle Dave

I will check tomorrow with my builder , we should be ready to dyno them by Friday , we'll see !

Hopefully you are right about these 383's , It has been a tough road with lots of changes and decisions $$$$ which at the end we will see if it was all worth it.

If your engine guy held up his end of the bargain, I would say you won't be disappointed. You've done everything right, it's not often you say that this "deep" into a build thread.

Lot's of people are waiting to hear how this turns out, it's like you have your own cheering section :D

Do you know how to check? If not, a typical transom hook literally "loops" down near the transom, the easy way to check is to take a straight edge (I use a yard-stick) and at the transom lay it flat on the bottom of the boat. If the yard stick touches the hull the whole way, it's flat (no hook), if you have a space between the transom and the forward end of the yard stick, it's hooked. The hook may not be easily seen until you hold something up to it, then it will become VERY obvious once you have a point of reference.

This hook acts like a trim tab, and allows heavier underpowered boat to get on plane easier. Some manufacturer's will have a very SLIGHT amount of Hook or Rocker (this is a whole different discussion) designed into their hull to emphasize certain performance aspects, or more commonly as a band-aid to try to save a bad hull design. Many older boats have them, I do not recall if your does or not 100%, but I do not THINK that it does. Sitting on a trailer without the transom supported and all sort of things can cause a hook that was also not originally there.

Here is a good picture I found a while back.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2icg9wjm5cp9cic/hook2.jpg

I tried my best, invested lots of time,money and energy into this project. I am really getting anxious now...

As far as the hook, I will get that stik and check if there is a hook or not.

Thanks for the support.

fixx
 

i take a string and duct tape...tape the string the the front pull it tight on the transom and tape it their and look for the hollow spot..