Hi!

I´m a Guy from Germany and build Engines for Cars. Now a Friend of mine has bought a checkmate with 2 x 454 in it ( carburatet, mercruiser, 330HP, SO Heads, Cast BO Manifold ) Both engines are frozen.

The Thing is now: Should I rebuild 2 Big Blocks ? and when, 454 or stroke to 496 ?

or, to come easier to work on that engines, i have 2 350 SBC´s i will rework, maybe stroke to 383 with all it need. An Idee of mine was to put 144 Weiand Chargers on it. Will it be ea big difference in Torque and HP ? Is it Waterable to run them ? I will build extern cooling in it, no fresh-water.

Did somebody run that kind of setup in a dual-Engine Checkmate ?

That one should be easy. There is no replacement for displacement unless of course you are trying to offset the $4 a gallon of gas issue.

there has been Checkmates that come with twin sbc from the factory. how big is the boat in question??

383s will not make the torque the 454s will, and in boats torque is where its at. the 144 blowers are worthless. they can't move enough air for the marine application. My advice is go with 454s with hydraulic roller cams and some good exhaust. Any more than that mite be overkill. Speaking of kill, what kind of drives?

Hi !

The Boat is a 28 Feet Checkmate, with 2 x Bravo One and a 24 Mirage 3 Wing Pro on it. We will build a seperat Cold-Air-Channel for the engines. Oh, and run with 96 Octane Gas

Stay with the 454's

Hi !

The 2 x 454 are both unrepairable damaged, and here in Germany it´s hard to find 454engines to build em up, and SBC´s I have 9 on the shelf

Oh Lordy!.... no Big Blocks in Deutschland?..... tisk tisk tisk....

Your only benefit to running the SBC is the difference in weight. Since it is a smaller boat the SBC may be ok if this is your only option. The problems with the small block is that you need to turn really high RPM's to make any power. People would run small blocks in race boats many years back with some success, but usually rely on the BBC.

I'm gonna go the other way on this one. I would go with the twin 383's. In a small boat like that it will have pretty good performance. Forget the small blowers, go with a 671 and I' bet with the weight savings it will run just as good as a mild 454. And cost 1/2 as much. I know a guy with a 28 Advantage with twin SB (the only one ever made I think) and 177's and it ran pretty good. Doesnt Donzi and Wellcraft offer that option on there 28's?

Dan