Good morning Mike,

Don't put a pile of money into the motor until you get the pump set up first. A good blueprint on the impeller and bowl works miracles and allows later horsepower gains to be transfered to the water. Figure on spending $1,000-$1,500 on the pump but you'll get more speed this way than spending the same money on the motor. This price included a new aluminum impeller.

If you haven't bought the cam yet you might look for a grind with a few more degrees of intake duration. If you're using Bassett headers (or equiv) then the motor will tolerate a bit more intake, say another 10 degrees.

p.s. We're adding a stainless "AA" impeller to our boat to load the engine harder. The motor is a blown injected 454 that I want to keep under 5500 RPM. The "AA" impeller should provide a 625 HP load at that RPM.

Regards, Mark