Hello, i have been around boats with my friends for years but never owned one,

I am a gear head and have a large collection of fast cars and have been building big and small block chevs for 30 years.

I always wanted a mirage intruder so i went on a search for one.

I found a 91 217 intruder in great shape with a fresh 454 and outdrive, interior is a 8 out of ten gel coat is a 8.

The engine is fresh but just a mild build. the block is the original 4 bolt 286 block, mild cam, forged crank rods and pistons. Still has the crap 236 small oval heads.

has Barr replacement manifolds and goes right out back with no captain call. carter 750 stock intake. yesterday we were out in rough 2.5 ft chop and white caps and with full tank and 2 people it did right at 60 on gps at 4800, sounded like to much rpm for those heads, those heads run out of breath at around 46-4800. I have done big valves and porting on the peanut port heads and you can make 550 hp with the right cam.

I was worried about the outdrive becouse i had never seen one like it. Its a volvo DPA-RS drive with c7 props.

I have a bunch of questions on things like cooling system, it is closed but i dont like that water pump deal on the crank, just looks like a failure item? It has a large heat exchanger in front and oil cooler down on the side of block. Is there a way to pump the water another way? what is crossover cooling? Btw if you guys need any advice on big block chevs builds just ask, ive done everything from stock 396 builds to 632 1800hp builds. I was friends with a man who was really close to dick maskin, owner of Dart products, so i learned a bunch of stuff over the years. I have a bunch of parts and i might throw on my afr 265 heads and a marine hydro roller i have, its 112 lobe sep so she will be good for the wet exhaust. I will post some pics later. Happy to be here this is a great place!!

Welcome to OSO

The crank mounted sea pumps are prob the best and usually the easiest to change impellers.
As far as the outdrive, you will have a very difficult time finding parts or someone to service it

The guy i got boat from said he had to get parts direct from volvo. He said they are a very strong drive is this true?

Crank mounted pumps are great and I would install one myself if I had the space to. Keep that if you can

Thank you sir.

I'm trying to figure out what wet exhaust to go with, this has the oil filter bracket and throttle bracket that bolts to the manifold and some of the performance ones don't have the holes to bolt that up? I like the Hardin marine hp500 kit or the stainless exhaust kit. There must be a different bracket for the oil filter and throttle cable? I'm also currently building a 9.5 555 ci big block, merlin block with afr heads and a mild hydro roller 226 232 at 50 580 lift on a 114 lobe sep. Mild 600hp 650 torque minimum.

I cant post pics yet?

You need 5 more posts.

Ive never heard of a RS version of the DPA, but the DPA’s are a good drive,
their lower and props just aren’t designed to go real fast…. the DPX is, but that’s a different set up than the A and they’re scarce.

For performance applications, the single prop bravo style drive is going to perform best and have the best parts ability( which they often need)

I think its a DPS? there is no numbers on it. it has a c7 prop set up but it needs more prop