540/650HP would be my choice......thats a heavy boat....anything more he will need to carry a spare drive...

If you are looking for an engine builder in the Great Lakes area, I would highly suggest Frank at Scorpion Racing. He (in addition to Robert Nelms and Dave Gerber at Monroeville Marine) has treated me the best of all the people I have dealt with over my many years in boating.

Its most likely going to be higher reving 502's @ 575HP.
Thanks RD, Going to be built in NY.

its gonna be tough to run a constant 80 with 502's....just saying...i would hate to see him spend the money and the boat doesnt do what he wants it to do....

Yeah he knows, but its all we want the Bravo's swallow.

My exact thought when I read your post about hi-reving 502's. Mine lived fine with 4 blades......5 blades killed drives pretty quick (well, that combined with 700 ft/lbs)

Those Maximus props have been eating drives like crazy round these parts of the Lake also...

What about an Arneson conversion? Should give you close to 10 mph increase,and give you the piece of mind to build some big power.Won't be cheap up front,but definitely be bad a$$.

Kind of what I was thinking. 382's have shown to react very well to the conversion and there WAS a set in the classifieds for like 30k (which seems pretty good) but don't think lasted long

I'd love to see Arnesons on it but since he only has 496's I think over-powering the bravos would be my first priority.