Looking for some cheap, but good, ways to upgrade performance / efficiency of a '99 454 mag. One idea that I've been kind of tossing around is upgrading the manifolds from the stock 454 to the Mercs 496 manifold. Thinking that I might be able to find a good deal on some used ones around a couple hundred buck or so.

So with this in mind I have a couple of questions:

Has anyone done this?

If so is it worth it (performance / efficiency increase)?

Is it a direct replacement (just bolt on a go..)?

Any other thoughts would be more than greatly appreciated..

Thanks in advance for your time...

How much $ is cheap to you?
I just got stainless marine manifolds for my 454 mag.
But I think there may be better bang for the $ in other areas.

Ahhh...Well as cheap as possible....~$200-$300.

I dunno if that is even reasonable or not, just an idea..

I don't know what merc manifolds cost, but the stainless marine are closer to $1000.
HP don't come cheap.
You will need significant HP to see any speed gains.
I think prop work might be the way to go... just my $0.02.

$200 - $300, Now thats cheap. I can spend that much on gas any given weekend

Yeah, wanted to keep it cheap.......

Performance increase is not really the main driver here, its more a of low cost of ownership thing through efficiency. Now don't get me wrong here I won't cheap out on the correct parts I'll try to buy the best there is but I don't want to create a maintenance nightmare.

I guess what I really want is just to have a great looking boat that doesn't cost an arm & leg to keep up and running, due to then introduction of performance parts to the engine. If that makes sense???

Take a look into Revolution Marine's exhaust

A good exhaust should help you avoid manifold failure which would cause big problems. RM could be a good choice if you are in fresh water.

And I think RM's are cheap, in the $1100 range. Stainless Marine are closer to $2000.

I'd say for $200-$300, upgrade fuel, call it good and enjoy the water.

I meant just the manifolds are probably close to 1000, then ya gotta add the risers.