Performance Programmer for Wakeboard boat
 

A few friends of mine have performance programmers in their trucks, they apparently enhance your cars computer for more horsepower and better performance... i was wondering if there is a programmer for boats to boost performance?

I've wondered this myself. I'm guessing each motor is tuned for the specific boat it's going in but if they are not and are just canned tunes for just the motor, you'd think a tuner could make a big difference.

Probably the same tune for all boats most boats a given engine goes into are similar hull and weight so would not effect the tune much. The only thing that will change much is loading it heavily with weight where you can't run as much timing or need to run more enrichment. I suspect all these engines have knock sensors, so while not ideal it'll still pull timing. No O2 sensor but I assume it has some way to sense load and adjust based on that, probably a MAP sensor, so should richen the mixture when under heavy load.

With that in mind, any gains from adjusting the tune are probably quite minimal. For more power you should be looking at some better flowing manifolds or headers, doing some port work on the heads, changing the cam, possibly a different intake setup, or a stroker setup. These are things that will make more power but it all needs to be matched to your weight and gearing (prop) to the engine gives the desired performance.

Of course those changes could affect how your EFI works and you may end up with a non-adjustable system that runs like crap. I'll take a carb and distributor any day of the week over that convoluted nonsense though. Simple and easy to tune.

No tuners for wake boats that I have ever seen.

Seams like a no brainer but it would have showed up in a Transword or Alliance magazine add by now. These boats are so advanced now it's either coming very soon or is already somewhat built into the computer. I'm thinking the latter because boats are designed to work in a very wide range of conditions (loads) so they probably have some timing and fuel flow adjustments built in to accomodate what the motor is encountering on the fly.

Just my opinion, I really don't know...

The engine providers are doing a fine job. Don't mess with it.
It is likely that automotive performance chips achieve allot of their success from altering shift points. Engine only mapping changes would prove relatively slight without changing injector$, cam$, compre$$ion and air flow characteri$tic$.

I am just speculating but I would think the answer or more informed opinions could be found at screamandfly.com. Marine gear head Mecca.

Unless it's forced induction of some sort, the only thing those "tuners" can do to increase power is lean out the air/fuel ratio and/or advance the timing. The safe gains on a heavily loaded naturally aspirated engine from those two things are very minimal (typically 5-10HP) unless the original tune was horrible, which they aren't with modern EFI. Both of those tuning changes will increase the likelihood of detonation, decreasing reliability, and likely violating any OEM warranty. With the heavy and constant loads a boat engine sees, combined with sometimes questionable marina fuel, running a more aggressive air/fuel ratio or timing map is asking for a catastrophic failure. Knock sensors can only do so much to save an engine from a bad tune.

If we ever see a diesel powered wakeboat, I could see a programmer coming in handy. The one I have on my truck is adjustable from 50-135 horsepower as well as an "economy" mode and makes a HUGE difference in both power and MPG. I could see it getting slammed boats full of people and ballast up and on plane quicker as well as for better fuel efficiency.

I would bet something exists for the mercuisers.

Exactly. Handheld + NA motor = waste of money. I've seen them also cause vehicles to run dangerously lean on the dyno. Their HP claims many times don't acutally result in any increase in power, and some actually result in a decrease. There are N/A vehicles that will respond to tuning, but not with some crappy hand held tuner.

Unless doing basic boost/fuel bumps on a turbocharged vehicle, the ONLY safe tune is a properly done custom tune...and even As for boats, there doesn't seems to be much out there for reprogramming, and unless you are swapping to a much more aggressive cam or adding a supercharger, there isn't a reason for one anyway.

If you have an older boat without O2 sensors you can add them and change the programming over to closed loop mode optimizing the motor operation on the fly but you will probably need to wipe the stock program and start from scratch. I considered doing it on my MEFI 4b ECM but I was told it would only raise the HP from 330 to 350 if I got it perfected. Bottom line, don't waste your time, just change the prop instead and leave the stock map alone. It's not a car where smog, epa, and gas mileage constraints are robbing horsepower. These motors are already pretty well optimized for the application.