Flash 250 SHO ECU on WX Skeeter

Has anyone had there 250 SHO flashed on there WX skeeter? Was it worth it, was there a top speed increase, is warranty affected, and did the motor need repropped?

Flashed???

There are companies that can reprogam the ECU to allow the motor to put out more horsepower, torque, and raise the rev limiters. Essentially turning a 250 HP motor to a motor that can put out up to 320HP.

628977 wrote:

There are companies that can reprogam the ECU to allow the motor to put out more horsepower, torque, and raise the rev limiters. Essentially turning a 250 HP motor to a motor that can put out up to 320HP.

Those big gains aren’t normal and usually involve a mercury verado 6 cylinder. They can adjust the boost pressure through the ecu.

Here is a flyer to what the company is claiming.

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   250-SHO-ECU-Program.png
   

i’m sure all manufacturers tune down their engines to increase durability, so adding small gains can easily & safely be had by tweaking settings, but going from 250 to 320+ HP seems like a recipe for long-term issues imo…

Just a question 628977; are you in Canada? Only my friends from the north talk about flashing outboards. Otherwise, it’s a diesel truck thing.

No. I’ve heard a few guys running the NWT have done this and have been extremely impressed.

628977 wrote:

No. I’ve heard a few guys running the NWT have done this and have been extremely impressed.

And they likely change out their boat and motor yearly so don’t see the long-term effects of it. These guys may even be sponsored by the company, especially if they are calling it a “Game Changer”….

Since the block is the same for the 250 to 300 they are likely stealing the ecu program from the 300. It sounds like a big deal but it’s just a couple refinements to a stock 300 ecu program.
The verado is the same way. Same block with different programs for 225,250,275 and 300.

Do you think their is enough positives to have this done or is the extra 50 HP not worth it?

I guess I would not be afraid to try it, so long as you’ve got the $ to buy another motor when Yamaha tells you that the cause of the engine failure was a result of an unapproved modification. I’m not saying it will break, but there is a reason Yamaha hasn’t gone above 300 HP with the big bore V6. You might also consider the potential liability issues if your horsepower exceeds the maximum for your boat.

If you go on the BBC forums,you will see that it is pretty common with the bass boat guys, especially down south. In fact a lot of the guys purchasing boats will purchase a 225 and chip it to a 320. Pretty much the same engine, and can be bought much cheaper at the lower HP rating. Reliability doesn’t seem to actually be much of an issue, except for the ones that have the rpm limiter removed. And there is the rub, as the real performance gains seem to be from the ones that have had the rpm limiter removed, and that’s where your dealer will see it when servicing, and they hook up to there laptop.These engines are not blowing up, even when chipped for the most part, heck if you look into it, there are major dealers down south, adding the chips for their customers right at the dealership. Just for your info, only you can decide if a 300 tune to a 250 SHO is really worth $800 to maybe gain 2 mph. Depending on where you are propped now, you may also have to add the cost of a new prop to get that 2-3 mph. I think, but am not sure, that if you want the 320 HP tune, it requires premium gas also. That really starts to get pricey. From the dyno graphs posted online, the 250 SHO is putting out 265 HP, and the 300 Yamaha is at between 285-290 HP. I do know that when I demoed the Skeeter WX2200 with the 300 we hit 57 mph, and that’s really impressive for a 22′ boat that weighs #3000 bare. It will be interesting to see what my WX2200 actually runs, as I have reduced the jack plate setback to 10″, from the factory 12″. I am assuming that I may loose about a mph because of this, and that is fine by me, as I am a 30-45 mph guy.
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I believe 300hp is about all they can get with the stock rev limiter in place. If you leave the stock limiter in place a tech won’t even notice it’s been flashed. 320-340hp has been had by hydro-tech but I believe that’s closer to 6400rpm. A TON of bass boat guys have done this and with only a slight increase in RPM reliability isn’t any more of on issue than stock. You will have to more than likely re prop to get the max RPM out of it to take advantage of the horsepower and where it comes in in the rpm range.

I don’t have skeeter, but looked into getting my verado 200hp 4 cylinder reflashed. It would have gave me 25 more HP. I talked a guy at my church that is a retired marine mechanic and owned a dealership for a long time. He asked my what my top speed was and rpm ect. He said honestly I might gain 2mph more and use more gas. He was saying to get over my top speed of 50mph would a lot more HP and that the 25hp wouldn’t be worth it. Also I have a feeling that it would void the warranty. Even if you had two ECU’s the computer in the engine would tell on you. So with that I tell people get a bigger boat rated for more hp of just be happy with what you got.