my last name is ratcliffe, and im partial to big block chevys in my vehicles... hence ratman, get it?

personally in lower hp apps i would prefer an n/a set up for ease of maint, and less problems, but thats just me, i know less bling factor, but reliability counts a lot in a marine app.

btw, last i checked you can by a used oem 502 block and heads on ebay for next to nothing... carry on

i never hear horror stories like that about engines coming out of zul, chief, cobra power, etc, a good shop will do a tear down, check your old parts to see whats usable, make a price sheet on parts and labor and build your engine...

i think in this deal the middle man was the snake in the grass... i wish him good luck with it...rm

Jim Lee w Freedom uses Boyd's - Enough said.

that says a lot...

And this is in a 29 single Outlaw, right? I would love to hear what number it puts up. prop testing in the spring is next !! What drive is this beast linked to?

It'll be interesting to see where it takes it to, it was running just shy of 50 as it was. Never really intended to have that much power just wanted more power to cruise as it was running 4K+ just to keep it on plane at the lake. The top end was shot so I thought it would be fun to throw a charger on it while we had it apart but we were only anticipating to make around 650 maybe 700 so we will see, I will be happy if that big ole girl can cross 65 with one engine, not a speed hull by any means but she rides good! As to the drive, that's where we are at right now with it, lots of different opinions on what the Bravo can hold up to but the power as the dyno shows is very progressive and comes on steadily as the RPM's climbed so it should be somewhat easier on the drive. Idled extremely well too so for now we may just change gears in the top and the cap and see what happens, obviously the ultimate factor being how the throttle is ran and minimizing airing out the prop.

Pretty sure Bob Morgan had Big Thunder Marine powered by Boyd's engines as well.

had about the same motor in a 26 scarab

Bravo 1 last about 15 minutes with that set up for me

after repairing 3 of them we changed to xr they would go about 50 hours

Did you change the entire drive or just swap parts out? I was told I could use the case and just swap XR components into it. My buddy says I should just get a #6 drive, which I'm all for if he wants to supply one! Wold love to put together a combination that will give me the best reliability but I've been told so many different things and everyone involved with this project so far has said they think the bravo will work fine as long as I remember that's what is back there. Thinking of running it as is and taking it easy on it this summer and maybe putting upgrades for the drive in next year. Any opinions on couplers would be appreciated too as I've gotten quite a mix of opinions there too.

With 800hp, I would bet you will see around 70mph. The twin 29 OL's with 454/502 mags run about 70-72 The 29 singles generally ran about 52mph with a 454/502mag.
I would strongly suggest that you make friends with John at the Bravo Shop and look for a Bmax drive.