Uncle Dave and everyone else! Thanks for the advice. This spring I was trying to decide what to do. Some guys were telling me I should just bold on a blower and call it a day! I though it sounded a bit to good to be true, so I chose to go the 496 route. However the cost for what you get is just not worth it. I know you can build a mean small block for not a ton of dough. So I guess I'm going to go with what I was going to this spring. That is a set of AFR heads and a new cam and intake! If I'm still not satisfied then I'll build a forged blower block with a lonely 350 4 bolt I have. Either way thanks for all the input and I'm always open to opinions!
Thanks

Once you have your wicked small block built youll need to worry about steering..

Heres a pict of my small block rig I coverted from a bolwer rig to a NA rig and it runs great .

Here's my little 20 foot tunnel hull with a 406 SB brodix heads,demon 850 carb, imco exhaust, Mercury ITS steering system with a a new bravo 1 XR.

I also have a bigger 28 footer with an Ilmor 710 in it.

UD

I think I would have to build a super wicked SB to need to worry about steering. With a solid built 383 i should hit about 480+ hp and 510 tq. Even with those numbers I'll be lucky to see the mid 60's. My boat is not light, although for a 24' boat it not bad, just over 4000 lbs. At 270 hp I'm getting 46 on the GPS. So another 200 hp should at least get me into the low 60's.

BTW thats a nice set-up!

If you build up a good running, naturally aspirated 383 or 406, you will quite easily make between 450 and 500 hp, with a much lighter package than a big block. That should get you into the 60's, with a lot less money spent than switching to a big block or blower.

If you are going to go blower, I would definately recommend a fuel injected Whipple setup.

Chris

CB is right on, if you do go blower stick with the whipple and go injected.

This way you'll have a common setup in the industry that can be tuned by someone vs guessing with a magnacharger.

Curious if you are pulling the engine to do a 383 kit then you can beef it up with the internals you need to put a blower on it.

With a new top end cam combo you can probably just bolt the new stuff on.

IF you are pulling the block, rather than screwing around with a kit you can just buy a shortblock all ready to go and bolt up your pieces to it. (actually a world products 454 short block would be cool and give you even more grunt.)

BE carefull on the cam selection especially in the area of valve overlap. Street rod guys usually cam up to make a good top end # vs broad torque and such a setup will likely cause water reversion.

Whats your budget, and what exhaust systems are you leaning toward?

Try this- go put both hands on the bottom of your skeg and lift up and tell me how much play is in the gimble.


UD

oh .. thanks for the compliment on my seteup.

UD

UD-
My budget for this winter is going to be around $3500 for now. Knowing me though that may grow. What I'm planning on is to go with the 180 AFR heads and a 270 x-treme marine cam with a RPM air gap manifold. For the exhaust I'm leaning towards an imco set-up but thats up in the air. This is a winter project so I have time to get everything in order. As for the 383 block I have a 355 four bolt 2 piece seal block I'm thinking about using for that project. When I build that I want to do it right. I may have my current block bored (1 piece roller)and converted to a 4 bolt. I'm not really sure.

I'll get back to you on the gimbal play this weekend. I'm not around my boat now.

I would look at Revolution Marine for a killer small block exhaust setup. I have used these on several small block marine buildups with great success. Very cost effective also.

The rest of your part ideas seem like good choices..ie cam intake, and heads.

Chris

Interesting find CB,

These look like a VERY nice manifold especially for the dough they are charging.


UD

With a buget of 3500 your not going to be able to build much of a small block either.