You have a friend?

Sorry 'should have clairfied that, I had 1 Friend

b-max's WILL be slower, do break, and also in a 525 application will move the weak link to the gimbal ring and/or helmet due to the "added strength" and x-tra weight.
i would suggest an XR sportmaster shortie from merc with a good drive shower or even the drive oil cooler thats on the market. imco over the bmax as well for the same reasons.

I 've had others say IMCO will slow me down also, just tryin to find a bravo style drive that will last. Thanks for all the info

max machine werx?

depending on the speed of the vessell, bulett style cases usually dont have much of a positive effect until the 90 mph mark. same holds true for shortie or not.
imco on a personal back to back to back test on same boat same ratio and so on yeilded highest speed from the imco with most stability coming from the merc sportmaster lower due to skeg.

The boat only runs 80, I've heard that the bullet style lower will slow you down cause the 29 single likes more trim. Dont know I never tried one.

U running Max Machine ?

I Run the Bmax uppers with IMCO -2 lowers...
I have a non step and like the IMCO lower design better than the Merc Sport, don't need the oversized case and skeg slowin me down.
The lower is the weak link with the vertical shaft bearing and the XR gear set.