Getting new engine (approx 850 hp Whipple) on a 28 Daytona, what drive do I need?
Would a new gimbal be part of that package?
What would be the cost?
What price can I get for my Bravo X (45Hrs)
Anybody selling?

BMAX, Konrad,#5 or #6. Bmax can bolt up to Bravo Gimble,Dont know bout Konrad and #5 or #6, you need the whole package. You can probably get away with a beefed up XR from Teague, Bravo Shop, or Max Machine Worx. Give them a call.

Teeitup
We ran a 35 Fountain with twin 850-900 hp 540's with whipples. Your cat should be easier on drives than our V was. We ran Imco Xtrem SC's had problems with both of them and did not drive the boat hard. Repaired them and ran another whole season problem free. Sold the boat and the new owner broke one cruising at 3500 rpm. If you go to 5's or 6's that means you will need a transmission, you will have to move your motor forward and it will change the cg of your boat. Check with Eliminator I'm sure they have rigged some, they could give you some advice. Not sure about the conrad. Why are you getting rid of the XR? I would upgrade it with Max Works (sp) parts or go with Teague's upgrade package. They should live in your application. Have fun.

Seasons almost over,send your drive to max machine worx and have them fully upgrade it. I'm running single v at about 5000lbs w/gas and passengers turning 30 pitch,w/540 running 9psi boost,I holeshot boat,I don't let off in air very much and I got 100hours out of last mmwx drive. You might even be better off to sell yours(because it isn't broke YET) and buy one of their xr's new thats fully upgraded (then you will have all parts with zero hours) ,Smitty
(The shaft that broke in my drive actually had 162 hours on it,it had been 100 hours since i had it apart to check everything)

Talked to a guy this past weekend about his 33 Datona. He's running twin 850's through imco drives. Can't think of what they are calling the drive, it's one with the ring of bolts around the top cap. The Extreame? For the weekend he brought along 1 spare drive. He ended up breaking two of them. I got to see the second one break. He was no more than on plane when it let go. From the sound of it, this was a pretty regular occurance.

teeitup.....
even over here where most of these guys really abuse drives in open waters the consensus is the max machine upgrades....unless you want to consider the #5 or #6 options that require motors to be moved forward to accomodate transmissions, etc. the best "bravo" answer is the max upgrades....

good luck..

gm

Mercruiser 3A

Any one running the IMCO 4x4?

teeitup,

Like Cord says, unless you want to take spare drives along with you, you might consider something with more beef than any of the Bravo derivatives (XR, Bmax, IMCO, Teague). There are race teams on the circuit who rebuild their Bravo's between EVERY race. Not very cost effective in my book.

SSM 3A, 5, 6, as well as the Konrads all require a transmission. With the SSM's, the motors need to move forward 11" to accomodate room for the tranny. Then there's likely going to be glass work to plug and redrill your transom.

Konrad has an application for existing Bravo boats where you leave the motors in their current location, and add an extension box to the transom that contains a Huber trans. Depending on your current x-dim and motor height, you might be able to get away with bolting them on with no glass work or engine height adjustments. Fred Sparling, one of Konrad's Application Engineers, is very in touch with what works with respect to drive height. Give him a call at 800 927-3545 and he can give you an idea of what's required.

I'm not running as much power thru mine as you're looking at, but I do run them on a race course at 5600 rpm with a 8800lb+ boat at 80mph. I also beat them up on Lake Erie on a regular basis. Both are excellent stress tests to see if a drive is going to survive. To date, zero problems.

I sent back one set of lowers to Konrad to be refitted with a new set cases with nosecones that are part of the casting (not added on). They have 3 races on them, plus 15 hours of test time. The gears are in such good shape, I opted to keep my originals instead of having them install a new set and have to break them in again.

Good luck with your project.
Brian

that would be a nice setup, 4 gears in the upper , you get a standoff box, transmission that fits in the box so you dont have to move your engine, and from what i'm hearing they are holding up to 900 hp