I’m still confused why you have to unplug the dizzy ground in order for it to refire.


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I’ll put 100 octane in it next time I take it out, does that octane booster stuff work? I still have like 1/2 tank of 91 in it now

Just got off the phone with my engine builder, old hot rod guy that owns a machine shop building dragsters, he told me the heads on my motor are like 62cc chambers and my compression is probably close to 12:1, I guess this motor is way more bitching than I originally thought. He told me those high compression motors love timing and around 50 degrees total isn’t going to hurt anything if it’s running good and not missing or pinging or anything. He said in a jet boat it’s not uncommon to have a lot of time, which sort of sounded weird to me. I know for sure the distributor is installed correctly and firing order ect. Is good

No offense here but you really need to be careful what you listen to with that guy!!

     - if he built the engine he should know the exact compression ratio (maybe he gave you paperwork with it listed? )

     - If he built a motor with 12:1 compression he should have told you to run race gas from the get go.


     - No way on the 62cc chambers.  he must have been in small block world.  your 454 will be somewhere between 98cc and 122cc chamber size.  What casting # are your heads?


     - smaller chambers and higher compression typically takes less timing to achieve a proper burn so no, 50 degrees of timing will definitely hurt something.  keep running it that way if you want to lose a piston.

     - the fact that it is a jet has nothing to do with timing, the engine has no idea what its attached to. Yes, it is uncommon to have that much timing in any motor. thats why it sounded weird to you haha

i had my dominator jet rebuilt 2 years ago, made no difference in the idle adjustment. (i did not install an inducer though)  i dont think the tight pump is an issue.  a 1000rpm drop going into the water would be pushing your boat around like crazy, that would be a lot of pump pressure!

Keep hunting, you will find it.

The spark plug gap seems wide to me.  I would try tightening it up to .032.  The more cylinder pressure you have, the harder it is for the spark to jump the gap.  The impeller doesn't put a tremendous amount of load on the engine, but it is a noticeable load, it may be enough to overcome the limits of your ignition.

Another thing you might investigate is the hot wire to your ignition.  If it is small gage, corroded connectors, and an ignition switch that has seen better days...  Try running a hot wire straight from the battery  as a test.