how much hp will a bravo take?
 

mid 90s 32' fountain,bought 740 hp 572s for it.was wondering what I was going to have to do to the outdrives to be trouble free?replace the whole set of drives or would changing just the lowers do it?will be on smooth lake water...no ocean.thanks for any advice.

Yes to 1st question. IMHO.

:popcorn::popcorn:

That depends if you drive a boat the way I drive a boat or if you drive a boat the way your grandmother drives a boat.

Do it right or you are going to be changing drives like a Nascar team.

Most times not enough!

The upper is the weaker half. You could run an IMCO SCX upper with your lower.

Trouble free and bravo don't go together. Unless you have a 25' bayliner with a 305.

Are you running on Smith Mountain Lake?

572's I assume are tall decks, I just want to see how those fit.

yes im on smith mountain and yes they are tall decks.i ask the same question on clearance and was told they were in an older fountain with no problem.we'll see

The closest thing I can relate to is my previous 28' Eliminator cat with 640 hp 540's, it ran 110ish and the nose of the drives was 3" below the bottom of the boat. I had no problems with almost stock bravo's over 5 years, maybe 100 hrs.. I was attentive in how I drove the boat. You have more power, I would think the boats are close in weight. I saw several 28 Eliminators with single engines and more hp on a single Bravo, that didn't make much sense to me. I always figured that the load of my boat divided by two drives and the fact that I rarely ran the boat flat out, or certainly not for long periods of time so I probably wasn't passing but 4-500 through each one of them is was saved my a$$.

TJ has an SC upper for sale on FB....

It will live behind a 1350 as long as u never get it on plain or use the boat. But if you run it I would say no more the 600 with out being on barrowed time. Just my opinion.

Just jump in and drive it however you like. Time will tell. You're already anticipating an upgrade so just enjoy the boat and when one drive fails, you know the other is about to do the same. Then it's time to spend the extra money.

You might run trouble free for a long time.

RR

Edited: Re-read the opening post while sober, half my response was b.s....
Note to self, don't post are a big drinking session!

On my 35 at 625hp the bravo's hung in there real well when went to 800hp my drive parts guy and I were good friends the gear sets did not like it so I got rid of the bravo's

You will have to make hatch modifications aswell as other minor adjustments to make tall decks fit. Currently have 588 tall decks with big tube Stellings dry exhaust in my 1998 32. Randy at Stellings made the headers a work of art for my 32, otherwise space between the motors will make it near impossible to work on. Enjoy, the 32 is a fun boat to drive.

Not as much as I want it too....had 600 HP behind a pair of bravos...heavy boat...they went 4 seasons...but I was careful on how I ran it...

All depends on how you like to drive your boat and how much $$$ you have. Keep the boat in the water and you'll be fine for a few seasons. Run hard in the big stuff and you'll be buying new drives this season. If you have the money, upgrade the uppers first, lowers should be fine unless you spend most of your time out of the water.

Best of luck with whatever you decide.

Had a 32 Velocity with 525 SC's that were right around 640, blew 7 Bravos over the years, blew the gears right out of the case once. Sold the boat, new owner rerigged it with Imcos an had a nice day. Long story short, your power and Bravos....... Have a Bravo Replacement Fund or open credit cards.

On the lighter side, your boat sounds like it will be a hoot and a half to run!

On the issue of the tall decks fitting, if you don't have a set of older stellings, or custom cmi's I don't think they are going to fit. My last boat had 34" crank centers, with 9.8 deck blocks and raised port afr heads my cmi sport tubes were touching.

well ****!!!!was hoping for a cheaper route than replacement drives....but guess that's the boat im in...lol.but getting off topic and glad we did I measured the stock 502s in the boat now that has stainless marine exhaust on it and seems like the new motors with emi dry exhaust is about a 1/2" wider and with the carb and air cleaner on it was around 3" taller,i think I have a inch of clearance on the stock intake....thinking of just raising the whole swim pad up and adding foam to the head rest and rear of swim pad and have it recovered to fill in the gap front and back...also add new thicker seal to bottom of hatch...want to retain stock look without cutting hatch...a lot more to this than I bargained for

On my 33 icbm . My pfaff 572 fit .. Cmi etops .. Had to lean the two .. Cmi bent them . They call it leaning them . They fit just fine .. Raised port heads ect .. Just saying not sure if theres a whole lot of differance in stringer confiquration between the two though . I would think probly the same .. Good luck either way .

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That is not a light boat with decent HP like VooDooRob said I had a ProCharged Velocity 280 that made 720 HP and 727 tq after Bravo #7 and back in the water before the water cooled I went B-max and would never do it any other way I had 6 turn key years before letting it go. My $.02.

On the 32's with 500efi's in them they put a raised insert in the hatch. May give you enough clearance.

thanks for the info Wildman...do you know what years they made that hatch,was thinking of getting another hatch to cut up if I had to?

What speed lose did you see with the Bmax?