Thanks Smarty , you are right on . I bought the hull without power and have way more BBC stuff than SBC. I am going to redo the transom any way so I think I will run the motors 33 inches on center to be safe . I will build the motors with aluminum heads there by taking the weight factor out of the equation and pray it does not sink at the dock.
RG.

Smarty do have any pictures of your dads boat at the dock. I would love to see how it sat in the water.
Thanks RG.

Most all of the Clem knock off's [AERO, LANCER, PREDATOR] were powered with twin big blocks on 33" centers with no issues. Here is a pic of the one I helped with that my friend had, it ran great..

Thanks H2o , great information . I am more comfortable going forward with the twin BBC installation. I will post photos as I go along.
RG.

Spoke with Sonny Miller original Magnum person who said what they did was put lead up front,or a water tank so they could raise the transom up so they could achive a 2degree angle on the floor in the cockpit under the drivers seat. This almost eliminated the the back wash problem. Bud

Thanks Bud . I will call you on the weekend to discuss my project and my thoughts on aluminum headed BBC vs SBC cast iron motor options.
Rick G

Here is the boat at the dock in Long Port, NJ. Late 1980's-early 1990's.

More pictures for youre review, I call bullsh*t on sinking at the dock too. You can see in the engine hatch where my father shaved the material to make it fit for the flame arrestor(s). He had one of his employees weld-make the S-types tail pipes. The carbs where 850's GM intake with the divider cut-out, GM cast-iron heads with port work done, not sure of cam specs, it all worked, he played with various cams as well as Merlin intakes, and the final product as pictured above worked best with 27" Mirage props blue-printed with added cup, and the leading edge thinned. He tried alot of stuff to go faster.

External steeering and a hydraulic helm made it go straight (he added the hydraulic helm in the late 1980's), and that is extremely essential in 27' Magnum for fun and safe operation above 80 mph.

Rick,
You didn't reply to my previous post but I will offer again. The problem with big blocks in a sport is not the weight, magnum put them in the starfire from the factory but this model has the engine hatch area raised about 10-12" to make room. The height of the hatch is not the difficulty, its the width. I can't post pics but go to donzi.net and look under "talk about other boats" section and look at "magnum resto" thread by MDonziM post #379 shows my engine bay. Or Bud might have some pics that I posted. You will see that my risers almost hit the side of the hatch opening. With 33"centers you will probably have to cut the sides of the hatch frame. I taked to 10+ people with direct rigging experience when I converted mine from TRS to Bravo: theres a lot to consider.
- Marshall