Gear ratio is very important. You want to buy an exact replacement of what you have on the boat currently, whatever the ratio may be. Ratio will/can dramatically affect performance. If you do care about performance, hole shot, top end, motor achieving proper RPMs, and motor life, then you may install any ratio you can find.
You can re-gear to get the correct ratio, but that will cost another several hundred dollars.
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2000 248 5.7L DP
'92, '94 SXI 750, '08 STX 15F, '12 Ultra LX 300
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