I hate to say it, but the other guys are right. If you are only planning to keep the boat for a few years, leave it stock, enjoy it, and take great care of it. That is a real nice boat, but not the type of boat that people go shopping for if they want a go-fast type of boat. You will kill the resale on it if you hotrod it. If you just can't help yourself from tinkering with it, then buy another complete 454 (or 496 or 502) and build it up. Then when you get ready to sell it, you can swap the stock power back in and possibly sell you hotrod engine or drop it in the new hull that you buy.

I have been working on a pretty stout 496 for my old Baja - for going on two years now. Kind of wish I had just slipped a stock 454 back in it - I would have been running my boat on the water by now.

I did a bunch of upgrades to a 454 that are in this forum from about 3-4 years back. You might want to look it up. I did 396 heads, cam, ignition, carb, intake, etc. .... Good info.