I agree full SCX/SCX and no worries or babying it anymore. I think that price quoted is including the transom assembly's. I had the HP transom assembly and just used the IMCO helmet not sure if you can do that with the B 1 but that would offer some savings

Yeah if your going to upgrade full trans Assembly's, gimbals, helmets, and scx drives your better off with the Arneson Bravo conversion asd7m. Best overall bang for the buck.

Your right I talk to imco and $30-$35k is about right for the setup.

I agree

if its 35K for two imco upper/lowers then the anresons seem like a hell of a deal

I agree

i dont understand this. everyone is saying the arnesons are to expensive yet essentially the legs of the imcos that everyone says slows them down but they still love them cost nearly as much as the complete arneson kit? how much more $$ is the transom assemblies, standoff box and steering for the imco's? looks like imcos cost blows way past arnesons price

Take the B1's off and send to bravo shop for overhaul first. B1 gear sets are less than XR's and B1's can live if driven correctly. Bravo shop has a platinum upgrade which installs bigger upper bearings and better upper drive shaft. they will also hard shim to get rid of slop that causes gears to fail. Add some of the synthetic gear lube they offer. Best update to the 525sc is a 250 supercharger and crane 731 hyd roller cam, lifters, springs. Will make 600 hp reliable and drive-able on 6 lbs boost and 91 octane. The 731 cam sounds great. 30-31p Labbed Bravo 1 props from BBlades. Boat will run in the 80's all day and ride like a Cadillac.

I have a 2001 with 575's in the same boat with xr's.

How much money is the Bravo Shop asking for this upgrade? A lot of guys run in the 500-575hp range with stock B1's without issues for long periods of time. I think you have the right idea if the horsepower is in that range. I just wouldn't spend very much money to upgrade a B1 when you can just get another one for the cost of some of the upgrades. Case upgrades make a lot of sense because it holds the gears and shafts in position. That said, Bravo I gears are Bravo I gears, the teeth won't handle going in and out of rough water on a consistent basis. If your power is conservative, and you are easy with the throttles, you do have a chance to hold up for a while.

Even upgrading to running the XZ/XR case doesn't fix the fact that the gears are junk. So if the Bravo Shop is making the even smaller gears live in a Bravo I case, they have the golden ticket. Can't tell you how many guys I've seen sit out a weekend of boating because of a drive with "upgrades" broke gears. In my experience, a twisted shaft is preventable (shock loads/bad throttling/hard acceleration) - more often the gear teeth will be gone before that. In fact, a little shaft twist is preferable to all of the shock transmitting into the gears. I never spent money on better shafts and never twisted one over many years with near 700hp. For the cost of highly upgraded XR/XZ drives, you can usually have a spare or 2 ready in the back of the truck.

When it comes to uppers, I personally think the Helical gears of the Bravo I,X, and XZ drives have long lives if driven well. The straight cut AND expensive upper gears on XR gears are a little stronger, but they need to be replaced more often because of the nature of a straight cut tooth wearing itself down because it's less efficient than a helical gear. I ran XZ uppers with great success for several years behind 700hp engines and did it with most of the hours in Lake Michigan. As I've mentioned before, the lower gears (XR - straight cut), were great until I changed from the ones that came with the drives and switched to new ones. I often couldn't even get the gears to live with Inland lake only - 3500 max rpm - babying the throttle break-in's. I never broke a lower gear, but I watched the magnets like a hawk and was seeing the gears pitting/flaking even during the break-in process. Tried many of the top gear lubes... same results everytime.

The only variable that changed was the gears being replaced from older parts to newer parts (same setup, lash, rolling torque, same 4 blade props, etc...). Mercury sold good gears up to the early to mid 2000's and went to Chinesium later on. A lot of guys have sent them to labs and no one knows exactly what alloy they are... not a good sign. 8620/4340 are great materials when forged and case hardened... I doubt Mercury was reinventing new alloys, but rather just accepting whatever gear from their Chinese vendor got them to a minimal acceptance threshold. I got well over 300 hours out of my first 2 XZ drives without problems. Then I change lower gears. Since their newer gears can JUST live up to 500hp engines (sometimes), people will keep buying more sets that won't be warrantied. Why would Mercury change? - great money-maker. Nothing like that feeling of checking the magnets after a ride wondering if you're pulling the prop shaft out or going boating tomorrow - seemed like it was a 50:50 chance either way.

Long story short, if you buy any Bravo drive, be prepared to calculate how many failures it will take to buy an Arneson, SCX, SCX4, etc...

I don't understand putting up with bravo drives on this type of boat? It's 15 k for both the upper and
lower SCX and no more driving your performance boat like it's made of glass. Doesn't take very many rebuilds to pay for this especially to you put a value on not breaking down in the middle of the season.