Yea have read good things about the A1000 and how well it holds up, it is a stout pump for sure. Definitely happy about the new set up, and feel more comfortable with it, as we all know the blue pump has its issues, and a dead head is simply put not an ideal set up.

Another little more budget minded 454 mag hop up I helped wayne272 from oso put together a couple years ago.

He had stock 454 365HP mags in his 31 Bullet. Obviously, he wanted to go faster, like we all do. And, like most of us, he was on a budget. His combo is as follows.

Stock crank and rods, .030 over with Speed pro L2399F pistons. Compression came in around 8.8:1. Stock GM iron rectangle ports. Due to budget purposes, a flat tappet was kept. Crane #134561 236/246 114 LSA .551/.571 lift. Crower cam saver flat tappet lifters. Weiand 177 blower with 800 carb

By no means a maximum effort build, with the Chevy heads and flat tappet cam. But a nice cheap upgrade from the 365HP engines, and most importantly, they stay together. 600+ ft lbs at 3500rpm isnt too bad for this little low boost flat tappet 454 engine with the big rectangle chevy heads that dont flow very well. For the most part, its basically a cam swap and bolt on deal that picked up around 200HP per side. Boat picked up a little over 10mph so far and still not propped ideally.

Spend all this time and money to make sure everything is set up right and then mismatch heads and intake. That`s hackery.
To me it wouldn`t even be a question, of course I`m going to sell the mismatched intake and take those proceeds to get the RIGHT parts.
I have a whole bin of incorrect/mismatched parts from my motors.. did it work? Sure. Was it right? Hell no!
Do it right or don`t do it at all, that`s my motto.

I'm a Mopar guy myself (yes, my 10 sec ride is sbc powered as well as is my boat... BBC... but my SRT8 still keeps my Plumb Crazy Purple blood flowing), and the subject comes up often regarding what's better; big block Mopar vs big block Chevy. Really what it comes down to is design. The Mopar doesn't need as much air to make power as does the big block Chevy needs (the Mopar is actually a more modern design) hence the big block Chevy responds to really big cylinder head flow upstairs. Point being.... this is why there aren't a lot of available oval port blower intakes available... I mean, why would you cram all that air into port that cannot perform at the upper rpm needs for which the competition big block Chevy was designed (and where the blower application is aimed).

Anyway... I'm half drunk and ticked off about some stuff (not forum related) so I think I'll be quiet for now.

tom,if you are half drunk you need to finish the job,lol.

Working on it!!!

thanks,,I needed the laugh,,carry on.

whats the beverage of the night?

Corona (a lot of it) lit it off.... wine with dinner. Back to Corona. Priming the system for game day.

I would hardly call the port mismatch "hackery" lol, is it Ideal to have everything perfect port matched sure. It would take hours to modify the square port intake to match, but for what gains? Its already been stated that the gains aren't worth the time/effort or money. Do you have any data to support other wise? Will not port matching make the engine less reliable or cause damage to it? What is the exact benefit or gain power wise or performance in the boat to port matching the intake to the head in this application? What makes this "Hackery" and so wrong to you? Data supporting what you are saying would be ideal, cause it has already been said that its not worth spending the money for an oval port intake or the time and money to modify the square port intake to port match by someone that has the experience to support that answer.

Mike I still haven't gotten a response from you on why I shouldn't use a MLS head gasket on my build?

i just thought that because as you said it,s a budget build that you could use the money saved by useing a gasket like the fel pro marine on something else.an engine build in this hp arena does not need a mls gasket.