I'm fairly new to this site and have a new project id like to share. Boat is a 1993 Mirage 232 trovare deep v with a stock 330 7.4/B1. Boat has 200 original hours and was stored in a Texas barn, freshwater only. For those of you that don't know, Mirage boats were built up in the Seattle area(I happen to be born and raised) until they were sold several times and ended up in the hands of some dishonest rip off artist sometime in the later 90's. They were always known for their solid build characteristics and good ride. Very much a performance boat besides the fact the inner hull strakes are a bit too short. But I plan on fixing that this winter!

Long story short, I plan on a forged N/A 489 or 496 and almost have all of the parts at present. Pretty much every mechanical piece of this boat will be replaced. I also plan to paint it and update the interior. Overall it's in pretty good shape. My goal is 600hp and 80 MPH. Here's some pics.

When I first bought the boat about 6 months back




The interior is in good shape, but the colors aren't my favorite... The fish finder, mirage sticker on the side and Whaletail XL were the first things to go.

Engine tear down begins. This was started right after I got the boat. Original plan was to do ported stock heads, roller cam, holley carb, exhaust and intake... Yeah right!

Was going to build a wooden gantry for $200, but thankfully I live out in the country. My buddy Donny came by and we were able to pull the engine real quick.









Future gear head & OSO addict!

Bought some new Gaffrig offshore controls with trim switch and lighted handles. Also replacing all control cables to match controls. It was time.

Old setup. Who in the heck installs a fish finder in a boat like this!?lol







I was able to sell my old controls on eBay to a guy who was building a boat for his son up in Canada. Really cool when you can help out others in their projects while at the same time financing your own in a small way!

Prepping the opening for the new larger controls..



My dash needs help. I'm going to keep the gray color but thinking about doing dark silver carbon fiber for the dash panel, along with new silver Auto meter marine gauges. Thoughts? Interior will eventually be redone in carbon fiber marine vinyl. Thinking gray and silver. No white, as it's a PITA to keep clean. I don't think it would jive at all with my gray dash.

New cables just arrived from CP Performance. It's like Christmas every time UPS or Fed Ex Pulls up lol.



All routed and ready to be hooked up. Trying to decide whether to mount the shift bracket on my long EMI risers with supplied bracket or up under the rear lip of the transom.

Look at this ticking time bomb......





Oil cooler was completely blocked with an old shredded impeller blade. Now I feel even better about doing this! And my wife isn't as pissed now.

The pics are not working..

Should work now as I just paid for membership!

Nice work! Can't wait to see the finished product! I paid the local Marina $60.00 to lift my engine out and put it in the bed of my truck. Thought about a Gantry but if you wheel and deal you can get it done. Having a friend with a tractor is even better!!

Hey thanks! Yeah it really worked out well using the tractor. Is your project in progress or all complete? I hope to have mine done by this spring. Long summers in Arizona!

My project for this winter has just started. I hope to have the rest of everything pulled off the transom tonight so I can start cutting the wet core out tomorrow. I hope to be done by spring also!