Adding more horse power in boats?

Just wondering if anyone has done anything to their boat to get more power? Performance parts, air filters, computer chips, etc.

Least expensive is a K&N air filter, synthetic oil, and a new Acme prop.

Supercharger, Nitrous Fogger System haha I wish

My neighbor put one of the tornado devices in both of his trucks, (looks like a peice of metal that fits into the air intake hose that changes the flow of air into a circular motion.). He swears it has added horse power and better fuel consumption. Would this work on a boat somehow? Has anyone tried one of these devices?

Tornados are cheap useless pieces of @#$%. Their only use is to suck money from suckers. Sorry to be so harsh but they are completely worthless. Tests have even shown them to reduce power. Your seat of the pants meter can not detect performance increases in a car or truck unless the modification adds about 20hp. Since the Tornado typically reduces power or adds nothing then how can your neighbor tell the difference. It's just wishful thinking.

In a modern fuel injected boat it is difficult to increase performance. The FI systems are pretty crude compared to a car because they do not have mass air sensors or oxygen sensors to handle airflow changes. If you can adjust the fuel pressure on the fuel system then you could do things like porting the heads and intake/exhaust improvements. You would have to compensate for the extra airflow by bumping the fuel pressure. But even then you still can't tune it perfectly.

Carbed motors are easier to modify because you can change jets, powervalves, etc. to adjust your air/fuel ratio. But you need to be an experienced tuner.

If the boat engine manufacturers would just put a mass air meter on these engines then it would be easy to modify them.

I second what Greg said about the tornado. Talk about a test for stupid people. And guess what? Your neighbor with the trucks failed*LOL*

Karl,
How would synthetic oil increase power?

Synthetic oil may reduce internal engine friction. If it does, you have an apparent increase in hp. You are just minimizing the hp loss from other sources including internally lubricated parts. Read your engine manual to see if it does not tolerate synthetic oils. Some engines with certain valve trains do not like synthetic oils.

I'm going to forward this to my neighbor, he swears it made a difference

Tom:

People have been working on the air induction system for over 100 years trying to get cheap horsepower. Believe me, if it was as easy as making the air swirl, every engine manufacturer in the world would have incorporated this long ago.

Rod

Yup hahah tornado is for retarded people. Like they say people see,hear and feel what they want to. The package says it will increase horsepower, the guy wants it to, so it will think it does.

I saw pictures a while back somewhere of a DD nautique with a blower crammed under the engine cover.

Using Crouch's Planing Speed Forumla:

speed = C/sqrt(lbs/HP)

Where C is the coefficient of drag for a planing hull.

My boat is about 2500 lbs and the engine is 310 hp, solving for C I get 128. Now lets say I put in a marine Corvette motor producing 375 horsepower. The maximum speed would increase from 45 to 49mph.

The equation has limits, speed should be in knots, and C is not really linear but as you can see adding horsepower to a ski boat is not very practical.

Mike,
You are absolutely right. The price for the additional HP is not economical nor recommended. Tq is the key to moving any mass from a steady state, Hp is for the top speed. However by increasing the Tq you also strain components further. There is always a trade off. The downside is a broken boat somewhere on your trip or a severely diminished boat life expectancy. These boats are incredible as delivered.

Here's the link to the Supercharged Nautique. Some major dinero and gas guzzling, but no problems with the holeshot or weighting the boat down.

http://www.planetnautique.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=album_pic&pic_id=66

I had forgotten about the badass headers on there too.

This looks like one of the ski flying rigs that Correct Craft put together using a supercharged version of the 6.0L GM Vortec engine back in 2002.

I have an 04 VLX and it comes with an K&N air filter.