Let me say first I'm a newb boater. This is my first boat and although having been around them I've never had my own. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all the concepts of what can be done and modified to these machines. So if I say something newb no need to flame me please

Just bought a 4800lb cat with a bravo 1.5 upper and xr lower w 3in spacer to lower the xr. Boat currently makes 510-550hp. I was thinking about bumping up the horse to around 650-700 with a mild blower upgrade. In talking with the shop he thought this was a terrible idea with the drive being the weak link and needing a major upgrade. They think nothing short of a total rerig with a $20 grand drive or so will provide me with ultimate reliability (he may be right). If it's going to cost that much to get the drive capable of me getting to the 90mph goal i have I will have to forget about it.

But if i can respect the throttle out of the whole and drive responsibly are there steps I can take to get to a point where I can rely on a drive for 150-200 hrs? Can I beef up the bravo one upper with new, heavier duty bearings, gears etc? Do people ever do this? what typically breaks on them anyway? Or would that even be cost prudent. Would an upgrade to an XR upper make more sense? I see them new on the classifieds here for 3000 or so. And just to throw it out there could I or would I want to throw a #6 on it? (no idea what's entailed with that but there is one reconditioned, wet sump, for 6k on the classifieds).

I guess depending on what you guys say I may have to drop the dreams of my blower and 90+, but even if I do have to he still thought that at present power levels my drive set up was unnacceptable. So I would still need to possibly beef it up (if guys do that or replace it with an xr if you guys think that's the only thing that will do it)

Thanks to all that can take the time to help a new boater out with some info