stroked 454 to 496 or go 540
 

I have a 454 with 88 heads, merlin intake, holley 830, gil exhaust, crane gold rockers. the plan was to stroke it to a 496 and run my M1 procharger I have sitting on the shelf. I rough guessed machining work, rotating assembly, etc. im thinking ill be at minimum $2500. I found this a week ago:
http://www.competitionproducts.com/T...o/CPXSB540090/
now can not make my mind up what to do.
any thoughts from the pro`s out there

Run the smaller inches & make up the diff with boost. Your M1 probably won't make the boost you want as efficiently in the big engine as the 496.

CP is a division of Howards and they have a good reputation and years of experience in building performance engines. I would verify this would be supplied with a good marine mild supercharging camshaft and hopefully have a hydraulic roller camshaft and lifters , a good forged crankshaft as well as clearances for marine use with brass or stainless freeze plugs. This engine spec. I believe would be built on a 502 base block for that spec. and as such should gives you a good base engine. You will probably have to add some head work and possible new Inconel exhaust valves and upgrade springs and retainers and such.
I think you will spend about the same just bringing your 454 up to its forged 496 spec. I would go therefore with the bigger cubes and you be able to use LESS BOOSTand still get to a nice big HP level and benefit from the addtional cubic inches.
You may need more carburator but those are not that expensive and just plan on some dyno tuning to get the air fuels set up right before it even goes in the boat. It will be money well spent.
Only other problem and item to plan for will be the drive breakage you may end up with and the cost of upgrading the drive.

JMO

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

IMO, no replacement for displacement! I would try to avoid the boost and get a bigger N/A engine... just my thought but I ai'nt an engine builder at all ! just alergic to blowers...

Its a hard choice to decide. but i do think ill have almost as much money into making a 496 as i would buying this 540 short block. My procharger is only an M1 and ive read some posts that its not big enough for a 540, but at 5psi im sure it would work.

other advantage of buying the 540 is you still have a live 454. somehow motors seem to live longer when they know you have a spare...

A motor on a shelf is not a bad idea. I live on a small lake up in the north here. its in a valley so never any waves barely, and the lakes about a mile wide by 12 miles long 40 ft deep. its pretty hard to really abuse something here.