Yes I run in salt 5% of the time, the rest is fresh water. I would like to do it all for less than $1500.

Although my personal preference is to the KE exhaust, since you mentioned "bang for the buck", I would have to agree with many on this thread. The Stainless Marine cast exhaust should be your choice.

I did a fair amount of research before choosing the exhaust for my 502 and the Stainless unit is a stout piece.

Forget about your budget line and just go out and shop your best price. In 5 years you will be thanking yourself (length of the warranty period).

Dana Marine Torque Flows seem to be a pretty good bang for the buck plus they look pretty cool. So far i haven't head anything bad about and I've researched them several times on here.

http://www.danamarineproducts.com/Gr...6-35bb4503bbf4