First let me start by saying thanx for the responses! Kaama you are right on with the 3800-4100 rpm that gives me a cruise of about 40-42 mph depending on conditions. At 34-3500 where I would like to be it falls of to 34-35 mph. With the 25 pitch mirage, it was just a little big --max rpm was 4300@ 57 mph, but the minute i dropped the rpm down to 3500 it lost the torque and wasn't real nice--throttle setting was not much different. I'm thinking if i could be around that magic 500-525 mark @ the prop I could spin the 25's and cruise at 3500 around the 40-42 mark.

The reason I said 1000 per engine is because I know that it'll be double that by the time i'm done, then I ahve to factor 1.63 to get it to my ****ty currency .

Besides I keep looking at the whipples and thinking I should just do that and leave the rest as is

Ursus--- You nailed me with the 'driving blind'

I would also try a set of 24 Bravo ones see what happens,I wished I had some but at this time of the year we dont ,check back with us more towards summer and we might have a set you can try,it cant hurt.

Since motors the motors are already out, I would think about 4.25 stoker kits. Shop around (ebay, speed shops, machine shops) and I think you could find them for $1500 or so. Spend a little extra and get 6.835 H-beam rods and pistons so you will not have to do block notching (worked great on my motor plenty of room). You already ave a .060 overbore at 461 so a quick hone job is inexpensive compared to a bore job. Longer stroke will help with your midrange and faster piston speed will take advantage of your rec. port heads. Notch the bore to help with 2.25 valve. Get flat top pistons and check compression ratio very carefully (adjust with head gasket thickness). Try to get a balanced kit. Sell your exsiting bottom ends to offset the cost. Think about oil pan upgrades if you have any money left.

Just my 2 cents of course. But you need max torque with a heavy boat and this is great upgrade for a 454 based block.

Dual plane intakes will improve your low end considerably and help all through your rpm range. They are only $150 or so an would be money well spent. The Whipples are the ultimate, but if I were on a tight budget, intakes and cams are where I would spend the money. Your heads won't show any improvement in the water with port or valve size increases. Your heads are too big now.
If I were in your position, I would do cams and intakes, maybe carb changes and put anything left in the Whipple account.
If you need good prices, cam advice, or anything else I can do, pm your number or call me at 704-574-4020.
Have a great day!!!

As KAAMA said installing the wedges will do the job. The intake will have to be welded to match the raised floor of the port. Your intake will work in this situation, (money saved). With additional intake porting and exhaust work 35-40 hp and a butt load of torque is not out of the question, more if you are overcammed. Remember 40hp @ 3500 rpm is 60 ft lbs. The bore notches help but keep in mind that you will loose a couple of cc's between that and the much needed chamber work. Check out my home page(it's getting back together) to see a cross section of a port that's been wedged. It's a merlin head in the picture, but the same concept. The head and intake mods will stay in your $1,000.00 range. All this is nothing new, I have been doing it for years. Good luck

Dual plane manifold may do what you want but it may not. Dual planes do not outperform single planes upto 5500 rpm, in fact they are about equal around 3500, below the dual plane is better above the single plane is better so its a trade off, you have to decide what you want. Heres a desk top dyno of the engine with all things equal except the manifold type

Hey ursus:

How did you post that graph off Desktop Dyno? Whereabouts are you on Lake Huron?

use shift+print screen this copies the whole screen to the clip board, paste it into your fav editor to crop resize etc

Your combo (both engine specs and boat weight) sounds a lot like mine (Formula 402). Best bang for the buck I found was going to 4 blade Bravo 1 props. Got me about 7-8 mph in cruise, no change to mayble -1 at top end.

-Greg