wannabe, that's what sparked this thread. Lots of old 311's that can be purchased - realistically - in the 30's. Trying to see if it makes sense to do some upgrades and end up with $40-50K into it. Sounds like you'd be better off with a lower hp 454 and just yanking them out when the time comes. That would also put you in a Bravo boat after '89 or so; I think the 420's only came with TRS drives, which really limits you to Konrads for an upgrade. And I can't see putting $15K-20K in drives on a $35K hull, *plus* power.

dock , the 420 was a LS6 motor.jc performance is building a hot one for stormrider.

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=95743

cstraub has a combination similar to what I was thinking but if you're on a budget I'd be inclined to use the 454 components rather than stretching to the 496.
The small blower setups will get you there too but I'm not a big fan of blowers. Yeah, I know my boat has them. Only because they were on it when I bought it.
Message me or email me for details.
Maybe you can rent KAAMA's ship. It ain't seen water in a while.

Damn Dave, quit beating up on Mark first thing in the morning! As long as he's not going for the "Too Old Memorial Trailer Queen" trophy, he's OK in my book.

I would start with GM's new 572, to make big horse you will want big cub's. My last boat had 600ci and they made 775's and were real dependable. Put 125 hours on them and never evn had to change the plugs. All Seasons Marine built them in Boulder city Nevada. But you gota have the drives to hold them, mine where 3A's. Steve

I only new of the 454's (over different years)
as 300, 310, 330, 365 and 385.

I could definitely be wrong (and probably am) .

I know the 502 to be 415hp. ????

EvilTwin
Add to the 454 cid the 340 inboard, 370, Cyclone series 400, 420, & 425. And the roller cam 450.
Oh yeah turbo 475 and SC 525.
And probably a few more.
BTW, the only reson I know these is because I'm old and have had the 330, 370, 400, and 525SCs in my boats.
Gary

This is a question I've wanted an answer to for a while, thanks for starting the thread. I have one difference, I have BowTie blocks I'd like to work with. As I understand it, they will accecpt a larger bore than the regular block. Might make it a little easier to get those HP#s. Anyone know about bore sizes with those blocks?

My boat has the 454/420's. I think it was merc's standard hipo engine before the advent of the 500 hp. They hadn't developed the blue paint at that point.

I have cnc ported iron heads and our own camshafts we also have our own forged pistons and we bush the stock rods. We put a new wiring harness on and a mefi 4 ecu so we can program it ourselves.