I need some meaningful assistance!
I have a Baja 40 SST with triple 500 EFIs and XZ drives and weighs dry 11,200 pounds.
The boat runs 81-83 mph which we are very happy with, excellent balance and fantastic in choppy water. BUT we are plagued with mechanical failures and are proposing the following installation.
A few months ago I purchased a pair of 725 Ilmors with enough kit to have side by side or staggered set up, I don't have drives or transoms yet so advice here would be good too, has anyone here done a similar thing to a Baja 40?
How would the circa 1700 pounds in weight reduction in the rear affect the balance when running at high speeds?
I await any useful comments.
John.

Near the same horsepower, big weight reduction, two drives in the water instead of three... I'm no expert, but it seems you would be happy with this. Balance wise, maybe put 6-8 people in the cabin to see what it would look like with 1700 pounds more up front with your current setup? Just an idea.

Sounds like a very ambitious and expensive project though

I can almost promise you that the boat will run a ton better as a twin staggered then it ever did as a triple and a lot more economical to operate. and of course faster. We have converted a couple of triples to twins we are doing the number 5 Scarab right now and project the boat to be faster then it ever was as a race boat and a lot better balanced.

I have heard the staggered set up is always the way to go with over triples, the only person that I know that has went from trips to twin staggered is not finished yet.
as far as drives go, would depend on your budget. there is a guy on here that has designed a drive for the bravo bell housing that is capable of 1500 hp, the name of the drive escapes me now but it is a thread on here. but they are $35 k ea. If I had that kind of coin I would put them on my boat.
arneson drives would be very cool and or nice set imco scx drives. all of these are going to be the same price range