Posts: 3479
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | There are performance enhancing products out there for outboards, but I am unaware of any "chips" so to speak for changing the engine characteristics. The main items that are out there for 2-stroke engines are shaved cylinder heads, carbon fiber reeds, and performance exhaust tuners. But...big catch on this one too...motors manufactured after (I believe 1998 but don't quote me on it..) are illegal to modify/enhance via EPA regulations unless you are running the motor for racing and or "testing" purposes. In many cases, what you would be gaining is horsepower, but with gains in horsepower, you usually end up using more gas to obtain the HP in the engine itself. A similar way of thinking about it is like running a 4 cylinder engine as compared to an 8 cylinder. the 8 cylinder engine has more hp obviously, so it takes more gas to run it.
I'd wager that the amount you might potentially save in gas consumption is used up in any modifications you might make. For example, when I was testing my 90 hp Yamaha, I put in boyesen reeds ($100) and a performance head ($225). My HP has gone up, but my gas consumption is up a little too. It's pretty much a wash or very little gained.
I would suggest the following..when your boat gets up on plane, don't just keep it Wide open...throttle back to 3/4 and you will find negligible loss in speed, but gas consumption is much less. WOT is never the most optimum. somewhere around 3500 rpms is pretty close to the best you will find for mileage and least amount of gas consumption.
Steve |
