trawfish

454 MAG Progharger Build

For the benefit of those with similar builds, I will tell my build story.

I have a 2000 26ft. Commander Signature. For those of you who have not heard of Commander Boats they are a west coast builder who just recently went out of business. A lot of people tease about the substandard quality of this boat, and I even joke about it being built in Compton!! The truth is that it’s a good-looking sturdy boat and I enjoy it very much. It could have been laid up a little better and the rigging is pretty sloppy but its well worth what I paid for it.


I bought it in 2005 with a stock 7.4 MPI that would push it to a whopping 55mph and 4400 rpm with a 24p bravo1. I enjoyed the dependability and mileage of this engine but after all I am a man and I need to go faster.

I purchased a used M1SC Procharger from e-bay for $1600. This proved to be an excellent purchase as it went on relatively easy and still ran very smooth. This got me going 65 mph at 4400rpm with a 26p prop.




I put almost 90 hours on the 7.4 with the procharger with no problems!

More to come!

trawfish

After Spending last summer waiting for the cast internals to let go I decided to pull the engine over the winter and install a forged rotating assembly. I pulled the engine and found this.




I never found signs of blown gaskets and attribute this to the engine running super cold including an oil cooler with no thermostat. I found the engine to be fine after disassembly and cleaning.

trawfish

As I began to price parts and labor I came across a smoking deal on a new 454 MAG crate engine (long block) $3900. I also found a complete MAG EFI system on e-bay for $600. I ordered both knowing I could bolt the procharger right on with the exception of a “u” tube for the intake.

Here’s where it all goes down hill. I received the intake and it was trash. So trashed that I made the seller take it back and refund my money. I lost a $100 dollars shipping.




Stay tuned!!

trawfish

I made a deal with a builder out east (shall remain nameless for now) The deal was for a used 454 mag efi intake system including injectors and rail, big fuel pump, two regulators, fuel cooler and reprogram of computer $1500, Smokin’ deal in my mind. I added on a set of Cometic’s and got out the door for like $1750 with shipping.

It took over 45 days for all of the parts to actually arrive. Remember, I’m in Arizona so the boating season starts early here. When I opened the first box I found a used fuel pump and used and damaged fuel cooler. The injectors were missing all of the seals. Ultimately the fuel pump was bad as was replaced, which was done under warranty by the seller. Injector seals $60, Shipping back fuel pump $35, new fuel cooler $60 (I have since repaired the other fuel cooler and will sell it)

trawfish

I took the stock fuel rail and machined one end off and placed 1/4” npt plugs in it. I tapped the other end for to 1/4”npt inlet fittings. I drilled a through hole straight up from the bottom in the center connecting the top and bottom bores and plugged it with a 1/8”npt plug allowing both bores to share fuel.



I used the stock kehin injectors, which I believe are 37lbs. and opened up the #8 injector inlet hole in the fuel rail. I supplied the rail with two –6 lines.

I ran a ½ line from the tank to a stock separator which I drilled out to flow the same as ½” fittings. Continued with ½ lines through fuel cooler and into SX fuel pump with –8 to –10 fitting. Fuel pump to 10-micron filter, to SX regulator all with –10 fittings. Out of regulator with –8 to “y” block splitting to two –6 lines to fuel rail. Return from SX regulator to BEGI rising rate regulator with –6 line and return directly to tank. About $300 in fittings and line. Wasted a few bucks on wrong hose and fittings $40

trawfish

I port matched the Intake with the heads for better flow.



Unfortunately my brackets and harness were from the 7.4 MPI motor and did not work on the MAG setup. I had to make a few of my own brackets and splice a few wires, but it all worked out fairly well. I had to order a “u” pipe and adaptor from Procharger for the new intake, which ran about $100 including hose and clamps.

At this point I was feeling the pinch as I had gone over budget. I bought a cheap set of GLM exhaust in effort to shave a few hundred pounds off the rear end and I could not find any bad input on the boards about them $600.

I had always run cold so Installed a Mocal oil thermostat I bought from one of the guys on the boards $60.

I spliced into the water line right after the sea pump and ran a ½’ line directly to the intercooler and then to an outlet dump keeping it as cold as possible.

I took the dedicated outlet from the cross over (previously going to the intercooler) and ran it to the thermostat housing where I drilled and tapped for an additional fitting above the thermostat. This provided water for the exhaust as I had installed a 120deg. Thermostat to help the engine keep a little heat in it. Just happened to fit like a glove.

Ryan00TJ

Nice writeup and pics. It will all be worth it when done. Remember putting gas in the boat is the cheapest part, well maybe for now.

trawfish

At this point it was time to drop it in the boat. I had sent my computer off to the builder and was waiting on it's return. Unfortunately this would prove to be major let down in the long run.

For those of you following this thread head one warning...

HAVE YOUR ENGINE DYNO TUNED OR ON-THE-WATER TUNED!!!!!!

I read many forums where people stated this and still didn’t listen. The shop doing the programming said nothing about that being necessary.

Ultimately I received the computer back after the person programming it told me that I have the wrong type of computer (mefi3 1623699), which is mercury specific. I still don’t know why that is the wrong type of computer but the programmer stated he had to purchase new software just to do my computer, which I appreciated. I was advised I needed to purchase a wide band 02 meter to properly tune the boat as well. Another expense I was not made aware of, but I have no problem with it, as it is a wonderful tool.

I installed the computer and hit the lake. The engine ran so FAT that the boat would not even plane. I contacted the programmer who graciously sent me a spare computer with a different program (also a 6999). Unfortunately this little dance caused me to miss the Desert Strom Poker run which I had already invested in not to mention two more weeks.

The second computer would prove to be even worse. I had changed to a two bar MAP sensor and I had to completely remove the BEGI rising rate regulator that had been sold to me. I still could not lower the fuel pressure enough to get anywhere near proper fuel mixture. Ultimately I had to ship back both computers (another $40)

See next post

trawfish

The builder was nice enough to second day air the computers back after several e-mails and a phone call. I hit the lake again with my new computers and was able to run her up pretty good but still pretty far off on the air/fuel ratios. I also now have a new problem, every time you start the engine it revs to 2000 rpm literally for 5 seconds. I don’t know about you guys but a rev straight to 2000 on start up every time is a total engine killer in my book. Also the engine now idles around 900 rpm so it slams into gear a bit. And a third issue is the idle AFR sits around 15.5 in contrast to the rest of the rpm range being over rich still.

This brings us to current day. During this frustrating and downward spiraling relationship with the shop I chose to deal with I had found they took it upon them selves to charge my credit card an additional $342 without my knowledge. I contacted the shop who stated it was for programming. I reminded them that I had already paid for it once. After some discussion I was told the amount would be refunded. That was over a month ago and still no refund.

I called the shop today and explained that I could no longer deal with shipping computers back and forth, paying shipping and wasting my summer. I asked for the promised refund and stated I would go to Arizona Speed and Marine and pay the $500 for the lake tune, which I should have done in the first place. I said I would call it a $380 dollar lesson learned and would be looking for the promised refund of $342 for the double charge. The owner of the shop actually told me that he would have to figure out how much I owed him for shipping the computers and then refund me the rest. Needless to say I have a problem with that and expressed it. I still have no refund and no call back or e-mail.

I don’t think writing a thread just to trash someone’s name is cool, but if you are considering doing something similar I will tell you who the builder is.

If you are the builder and have read this I think you are probably a good guy, but I think I truly received bad customer service and quite a few setbacks all at my expense.

Incidentally to date the boat runs over 70 mph at 5200 at an AFR around 10.3 still pretty fat up top

I have wasted several hundred dollars (still looking for some sort of refund) and will have to pay another $500 for the tuning making my computer tuning total around $950 if i get the refund

I initiated this deal in the first week of February and have just now achieved a drivable boat.

Now that I am done complaining we will get back to the technical part of this thread….

trawfish

Forgot to show you the spacer I made for the 02 sensor... Once again, I got the idea from somebody else on the boards. I was a pretty handy machinist once upon a time.




Works pretty well if I do say so myself