small blocks
 

Patriot,

The night we were running next to you, we were doin about 66 or so. Currently, the Thunder Runs almost 71. Basically it runs as fast as the other ones out there with 502's (and exhaust).

I only have 355's. Like I said before, I still have some tweakin to do, but as for not having enough torque, there isn't an issue. Right now, I have 23 MP's on there, and with the drives in, if I get on it hard, it just blows the props right out. It gets up on plane fine, and accellerates well. It still has a hell of a lot more of a punch with the 21's though. If they've got good parts in them, you should be able to spin them at 6000 or so, and have then live reliably (I had almost 400 hours on mine with the .600 solid roller cam before the "freshen ups"), and the only thing I did was replace a circ pump & starter in 4 seasons.

In anycase, the swap is not too bad..........I bolted the offshore mount to the blocks and popped the engines in. The only thing I had to do was modify my risers...........The boat originally had 525's in it with Gills, so the holes were a bit higher. If yous does not have the 3" spacer, there shouldn't be much of a problem.

As for weight........if you have aluminum heads, an intake, and especially exhaust, it'll be quite a bit less.

Talk to Lenny at Millenyum (586-468-7361). Lenny is a good guy & has put small blocks in place of big blocks, on a checkmate, and some others. He can tell you the in's & outs. Also, his customers seem to be pleased wth the work he does, and he also is one of the most reasonable guys when it comes to price.

Later,
RJ

RJ
Good to hear from you, I'm glad to hear your running faster. It sound like everything is in tune now. I have Sparky form Vicious working in the job already. I've just purchased IMCO hydraulic steering also. Now I just have to remove that crapy bottom paint. I'll put everybody on my buddy list.
See Ya!

I considered the opposite, switching from small blocks to big blo-cks, but, they would not fit in my scarab P29. I ended up building 383s, procharging and making a few mods to the efi system that came on the 350's. Best money i ever spent. boat went from 68-70 mph, to 92.8 and dyno shows 610 hp each. Good luck with the retro, but i dont see much performance gains naturally aspirated. Let us know how it goes.
Steve

Kevin Don't tell me this is your other handle?

Thanks..............I still have a few things to try - I expect to be at 72-73 next year.

See you around..............Let me know how the change goes, and if you need anyone to go fort a "snot dripper" (ride with ya) when it's done - lol

Later,
Mike (AKA - RJ)

Patriot I could only wish I was goin 92. Steve how does that boat handle at those speeds?

I considered the opposite, switching from small blocks to big blo-cks, but, they would not fit in my scarab P29. I ended up building 383s, procharging and making a few mods to the efi system that came on the 350's. Best money i ever spent. boat went from 68-70 mph, to 92.8 and dyno shows 610 hp each. Good luck with the retro, but i dont see much performance gains naturally aspirated. Let us know how it goes.
Steve

I have no idea why that post last night showed first one ever! Maybe i was logged in wrong. The boat handles just as it did with stock power. Only other changes were a switch to IMCO shorty's and 32 in. bravo props.

Steve is that the boat they didnt put oil back in the drives? I read some of your old posts when I started on my boat. Weight was a big factor for me, we do a lot of rafting and people sit on the back and I was wouried about water coming in. Plus at the time I did that Procharger diddn't have a v belt setup for mpi. But what I did was put aluminum heads exuast and different cams that was good for 10 mph. That put me at 80 last year, the boat handled better seems it likes to be on top of the water. This year I blew a drive and they ordered the wrong gear, but changed the timing and everything else to correct the probem now I am going 78. I need to take the boat back to the guy who did the engines and have him reset all that.

Yea, that is same boat. You could have used sbc carbed 3 groove pulley set up for crank. You still running same efi set up?
Steve

Da, You will have plenty of room. I have an 86 26' Nova II. It still sits ass low but not too bad. I have Twin 409's in mine. The old 406's came apart. Right now the boat runs 60 but I have alot of tuning to do. I'm thinking I will be in the low 70's. I've got a picture of the boat at home, I'll post it so you can see how it sits.

Jeff