Honestly, the engine (aside from needing a rebuild) is fine, the prop is where you get the boat truly setup and dialed in for your application with your power available. Plus a prop is usually in the $500 range. Now I know that my application is not what you are looking for however, without changing anything on my boat (engine is "bone stock" original trans) except for a new prop, I picked up a bunch of acceleration, better hole shot, the engine does not need to run as fast to get the same top end speed and for me I smoothed out my wake in the process which is great for skiing which is all I do with my boat. There are going to be others on here that took an older boat and use it for wakeboarding and surfing and with a prop change they got the boat to do what they wanted and they might be able to chime in to help.