454 / 330HP What Can Be Done ?
 

I am curious of what can be done cost effectively to increase the HP my in 454's? They are not mag's and are 100% stock at this time.

I may be looking at rebuilds by the end of this season, I have no interest in purchasing new engines for this boat just freshening existing.

I would like to pick up 100 hp? can it be done without a blower? Will the motors hold up if I don't beat on them too bad? And can I maintain the reliability I have now?

The boat is a 29' 1990 Mach 1 Endeavor in like new condition and its paid for. I see no sense in selling it when I upgrade to a bigger boat. I wont get what I feel its worth.

The boat performs well now, tops out on GPS 62mph. I would like to see 75ish? That also poses the question will an additional 100 HP per engine get me to that speed?

I have experience building small block MOPAR motors... I have never wrenched on Chevy big block in my life so have no idea where to start.

Thank you in advance for you feedback.

fightclub

Another 100 horses will put you in the 69-71 mph ballpark. It'll take 150 a side to get you to 75. Target power is now 480hp per side. Not getting there without blowers. Your motors cant spin the revs to get there with normal hop ups.

If you do blowers, you'll need forged pistons and better rods. Then you can see 480 a side and stay under 5000 rpm. You'll need decent exhaust and a cam change, too. You can port your oval port heads and put in bigger valves, but it is getting to where you might be wanting more than you should ask from the cast motors.

You can get 410 or so a side with a cam, intake, valves, and some pocket porting.

mcollinstn
 

Great feedback thank you.


If I do the cam/intake and ports should I also add headers? Then a carb? That may get me to 430.

If were a stock 340 it would be easy.

fightclub

430 street horsepower aint he same as 430 reliable marine horsepower

I have a set off 420 exhaust , cam's , lifters , intakes and carbs if interested.


JMPH

Not a Pablum my 330's on roids make 505 at 5600 I dont run them over 5100. I have Merlin heads roller rockers 9.5 to1 compression Edelbrock rpm intakes Holley 800 carbs and EMI exhaust for more details Brad do a search on 330's on roids.. I think I spent about 6K with machine work but I assembled them with Crazyhorse to save some $$$ another $1500-2K for assembly if you dont want to do it yourself... I bought alot of stuff off the board used for a fraction of new prices.....carbs,heads, the rest I got from a wholesaler in Chicago...

Dyno NICE !


500 HP for 6K... Now were talking:cool: I may call you in the AM... I am bidding 600 stations of Resolve and may need some technical help. Our presentation is Wednesday AM... We get 30 minutes... Looks good it's an old AO customer.

Brad

Go Brad go!! Sell all you can!! I dont have an office since the scaling down in programming (back on the floor but employed)but was approched on Friday that I may get it back soon as things get going!! You can call me at home after 4:00 pm or email me...616-786-3829 or [email protected] do a search on the subject in the tech section and get a great machinist and it can be done!!!

410 is about all you'll want to aim for with the stock heads. Carb and headers won't do much at that point.

Now if you have a budget for heads, then there's effectively no limit to the horsepower you can make. You can keep making more till your stock rods come apart. Heads will be your horsepower barrier. Rods will be your reliability barrier.

Much over 400 hp and you can start realizing some benefit to headers, but not much until you cross the 475 horse zone, they they become "worthy".

Heads are the key. Merlin ovals would be a great addition.

I thought you were on one of those "budget" horsepower plans.

I thought you were on one of those "budget" horsepower plans.
 

Yes I am... And thank you for keeping me focused:D

I started last fall updating the boat... NOT a good idea I should have let someone else make all the decisions. I now have new everything in a 1990 that doesn't go fast enough:D And Never get 1/2 my money back.

But after looking at the 42 Fountain up in the tree I think I did it the right-way... getting experience on the water with 29' of boat and 660HP. Another season under my belt I should be ready to move up.

fightclub:

Yes, focus is hard to maintain when it comes to boating.

Just keep in mind that there is a limit to "rational" upgrades to a cast motor unless you are a competent tuner and have access to lots of "second tier" parts (the "first tier" guys are always obsoleting some really decent parts that work quite well if you don't have to have THE BEST stuff).

BRAD FOCUS!!! do you want to go faster? In this boat? Is the boat tired? you could always sell your 330's and buy some take outs or crate motors....or start stock piling parts like I did and upgrade what you have....

if the 330's need work go for it! if not run them til they need work....or buy a faster boat..

You can easily get reliable power by increasing the CID. Get a couple of 4.25" stroke rotating assemblies and punch the blocks out to .060" which is safe and you have 496 CIDs. With some good pocket work on the heads and a cam change you can gain your power goal.

Chris

I opted to buy heads and stay 454 ci.....I've bought used Merlins here on the board as cheap as $350 a pair for castings...

Chirs,

Thanks for the info, do you have an idea what this should cost?

Brad the stroker kits are $1200-$3500 each and up depending on who's crank you use plus machine work and assembly.....

Dyno is correct. Tight budget you can use the Scat Nodular Cast crank, around $300. Use a set of I-beam Eagle Rods, 6.385" Length, $289, and set of SRP pistons: $480. Bearing and rings will run you another $150. The crank and rods need to be thoroughly inspected and possible resized. The Nod. crank is 30% stronger then the OEM cast and will easily hold this kind of power.

The other option, as dyno indicated, you can go high in and get a complete Lunati Kit. Has all of the above plus balanced with a 1 year warranty. Kit runs around $3K to $3400. If you have any other questions you can e-mail me [email protected]


Chris

Chris is right on...another $1200 a set for Edelbrock marine heads and you got really great power!!

Speakin of heads ....Merc 454's 1100 each !!!

$1100 each $2200 a pair???come on!you mean the pair right???I'd get the brand new edelbrocks for $1200 a pair....my.02

I would stay away from the Edelbrocks heads. They really aren't that good. If you know someone with GM you can get the same heads cheaper. I just put a set of Dart Pro1 heads together for 1500.00. Call Doug Herbert he has good stroker kits for 3000.00 But back to that low budget HP find a set of older closed chamber stock heads. It will bump up the compression and wake up your flat top pistons. If your looking for some CC heads let me know, I have some. Good luck, Pete

You can put pro 1's together for $1500 a pair?? I want to be your friend!!
[QUOTE]Originally posted by gmhdfan
[B]I would stay away from the Edelbrocks heads. They really aren't that good. If you know someone with GM you can get the same heads cheaper. I just put a set of Dart Pro1 heads together for 1500.00:D

Oval port Merlins would be a good choice. Even if you do go to stroker kits, the 269cc runner volume is more then suffiecent to supply the engines for an rpm range of 3500 to 5500.

Chris

Chris that what I run.....the merlins, good so far if I had some extra money I'd get them to JimV(the Man that flows) and then they would rock!

Oh yeah, the Edelbrocks are decent heads, but do to the difference in the intake runners on airflow, you really need a camshaft with 2 different intake lobes to get max power out of combo and those cams run into some money.

Chris

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dyno
[B]You can put pro 1's together for $1500 a pair?? I want to be your friend!!

Come down and buy some drinks, I make friends easy:) :cool: If you know where to buy them you can get heads pretty cheap right now. Seems like there is a war going on between these aluminum head manufacturers. Doug Herbert is selling complete darts for 2000.00. And that I think is his advertised price. You guys want to do a group buy I can probably get a pretty good deal right now.

How do you get 2 different intake lobes:confused: :confused:

Grind one profile for the short runners and 1 profile for the long runners. Old PRO STock trick from years ago. I do if for a few customers today that have OEM head specifications for pulling truck classes.

Chris