454worth stroking
 

i have a 79 chris craft excaliber with two 454s. i have the motors out and wanted to stroke them, but my engine builder told me he would only make them 496s. what i was wondering is it worth it for only the little bit of cubes? if anybody else has done this any info would be appreciated. thanks

I guess it depends on how much it'll cost.

You can buy a crate 502 short block for less than 4K.

DAVE

454s worth stroking
 

he told me around 2300 to 2500 and that was for machining the block and a good forged crank,rods andpistons. i guess iwas just wondering if i would notice a big hp difference? kinda dissipointed i found some nice 540s i was going to buy, but they were tall decks and i only have about a 1/4 inch between my to inner gil manifolds. so they wont fit without a whole lota work.

why not a set or prochargers??? I fthe engeins are in decent shape. freshen them a up a bit for a few hundred bucks and put on a some small blowers. I doubt you wil be able to stroke them for $2500. A decent forged crank alone is at least $600.

excaliber, what hp are your 454's originally. very general increases for stroking a 454 is 50hp and 50 lbs of tourqe. that very roughly figures to be 3-4 mph increase. these are very general quotes and so much depends on cylinder heads, cams, compression ratio. hp generally ranges from 500 to 600 hp.

Excaliber,

Who's got the tall decks for sale? :D

I went through the same thing with my Cigarette. I had 454-440hp cyclones. Not mutch more HP strokeing. Eather way you need crank,rods,pistons. so I sold the 454's and built 540's. If you find the right buyer for your 454's it almost pays for your new blocks and heads. Good Luck :confused: :confused:

Puder,

Where can you buy a "decent" BBC crank for $600???:p

Top of the line BBC cranks cost $1500-1700

Which means "decent" cranks cost around $1000:mad:

DAVE

well the forged crank that went into my new engine cost about $600 from Bruce Dudley. its a GM 1054 nitrited crank according to the biuld sheet. I sadi i neede d forged crank and to use his best judgement as to wich one. I was expecting the 454 mag crank that was in the engein but due to some hairline cracks it needed to be replaced.

As for other cranks see attached:

both of these are from the Summit Catalog. Perhaps they aren't top of the line but I would be willing to call them decent. And about $600

454s worth stroking
 

i dont really know what horsepower they are i bought the boat about 9 months ago. i tore them down the other night and they looked real good. they are mark 4 blocks with forged cranks and rods and four bolt mains.i thought about blowers but everybody i talked to said that i would be better off just going natural aspirated on a boat.i would be happy with 500-550 horsepowerout of them.by the way he sold the 540s, but i will let you know f he gets anymore. he has about 16 of those monster trucks and he runs 540 and 572 keith black chevys and brad anderson hemis.

Must be the dude that owns the Monster Patrol trucks. I heard he has a bunch of stuff.

I'd be willing to bet that those $600 cranks are made in China. I've seen a few of those crack in half. I've read of a couple more.

On the other side of that coin, I've seen several stand up to a marine environment. They are all in mild engines however.

Time will tell right?

DAVE

454s worth stroking
 

yea he owns 3 or 4 monster patrols 3or 4 bearfoots carolina crusher overkill ,wildthing and a bunch of other ones i cant think of. thats what iuse to do but it got to be to much politics and not enough racing.

it think blower will be just fine in the marine enviroment. There are a TON of blower motors in a ton of boats. Mecr even sell warranteed blower motors. The SC575efi and SC900 and the new SC1050efi.

They used to make the SC525 which was a 454 mag (4 bolt main, forged internals) with i think 7:1 pistons (SCR might a have been little higher) and a 177 blower on top of it. I just had a similar engine biult and it made 551hp. I have yet to run my boat with it buty i'm getting close. YOu will get moer bang for your buck with small blowers. and you can find prochargers or evena pair of B&M174 or even 250s for for around 3k-4k with carbs. If your current engines look ok, slap on the blowers and run em. Beside you'll be up and runngin sooner tan atotal rebiult and it will requie substantially less work to get them biult.

Super charged engines have the ability to make a ton of power and they've got them working pretty well for marine applications these days, but I prefer to use naturally aspirated engines myself. I like to try and keep things simple and as less complicated as possible, but in order to get the power without a blower you have to build larger cubes----I believe there is reliability in cubic inches. It's all personal preference. However, if a 177 blower is what you want, call Wolff's shop in S.W. Michigan. I think he has a few USED ones at his shop. Wolff's number is: 269-422-1090

chief engines has 540ci shortblocks for $2800. it's hard to buy the parts yourself for that price let alone balanced and put together already. mark IV heads will work on them too.