Are we allowed to reflash mercury ecu's again ?

[LOSTINJ]

Just curious with new sheriff in town , is it Ok to reflash an ECU ? I assume so because I see NIZ-PRO a paid advertiser re-flashing yamaha ecu's on this site

[LakeFever]

Nizpro is alive and well. A lot of guys I boat with are swapping to yamis and getting nizpro tunes. Huge gains in some cases with just a tune

[JCSmile]

From what I've seen the cat is out of the bag. Australian companies are flashing ecus and motec is doing standalones for the 450s that make some big power. I'm guessing in the US if you advertise flashing stock merc ecus you will still be getting a cease and desist. Has anyone done the speedmaster marine merc 360?

[Greg G]

Oz has always been way out fron with there after market work. Nizpro easily has 1o years under there belt

[JPEROG]

I don't think you want to stand in court against Brunswick for altering their proprietary software. To buy an aftermarket ECU is fine, just don't think that your warranty is going to remain valid. The MoTec stuff is incredible and there are lots of them out there.

Joe

[David - WI]

I don't think you want to stand in court against Brunswick for altering their proprietary software. To buy an aftermarket ECU is fine, just don't think that your warranty is going to remain valid. The MoTec stuff is incredible and there are lots of them out there.

Joe

That's the problem when there's no competition... the automakers (except Ferrari) gave up decades ago; because people would just but something else if you were a d*ck. Mercury figures if you want more HP you should buy a more expensive motor.

[4Speed]

I don't think you want to stand in court against Brunswick for altering their proprietary software. To buy an aftermarket ECU is fine, just don't think that your warranty is going to remain valid. The MoTec stuff is incredible and there are lots of them out there.

Joe

Makes me think about my 2021 Tundra; purchased it new and it had remote start via the key fob. 3 years to the date of purchase Toyota somehow turned it off. After talking the dealer, I was told I need to sign up for a service and pay a monthly service to have my remote start reactivated. I purchased the truck new with remote start then it gets turned off w/o my knowledge and I am told to pay for the service. It's amazing how MFG's still control or want to control products they no longer own that we purchase in good faith.

[Greg G]

That is ridiculous. Converting products to monthy subscription services has been a big trend for mfg over the last several years. It really has beecome a month over month revenue stream for these OEM's and not much we can do about it.

[JPEROG]

I can see their issue. If you get someone who can break into their ECU and change the perimeters so that the thing is running lean or running into an rpm range where the motor has bad harmonics, (above 6800 in many cases), and then want Mercury to cover a new powerhead because of something they didn't have control over is wrong. I am buying new motors for my current project and I think I am going to get the race program motors which have no warranty but cost less. The other issue is the EPA and its real (do some research and see the fines imposed on guys who create products that alter emission footprints).

Joe

[Greg G]

Agree with JPEROG on new motors. No reason for Merc to allow ECU mods AND then provide warranty

[LakeFever]

The digital age jumped the shark on property ownership. There is no more or less intellectual property in a hard part as there is in a line of code. Think of the many thousands and thousands of man hours that went into designing the sbc cylinder head. I buy a sbc head, port it to my hearts content add bigger valves whatever and never in the history of the world did any cyl head manufacture come after a hi perf guy and suggest it was corporates intellectual property and not to be altered. Furthermore because our intellectual property is so awesome you have to pay a monthly stipend to continue to use my cylinder head. Sounds insane right?

No different to the tech world today. Suckers buy that crap and support it. If we all wholesale rejected that nonsense as we should? It would be relegated to the nonsense pile.

You bought it? You own it. Period. Yours to do what you want with. Any govt or corp regulation that mingles in between that is simply over reach and wrong. It’s commie corporate is what it is. It’s the furthest thing from freedom and property rights I’ve ever heard of. I suppose it’s the pendulum swing after Napster and whatnot but it doesn’t make it right in my books. Needs to be adjusted accordingly

[JPEROG]

I was referring to the ECU programming getting hacked into (intellectual property). They don't care if you go out and put aftermarket stuff on a motor or modify the internals--just don't come to them for emission violations, or warranty (it met the requirements when they sold it). Hacking a stock ECU is a big deal because it opens so much liability for the manufacture (the guys caught doing it will get pinched).

Joe

[LakeFever]

Ahh makes sense. Absolutely you mod it? Warranty gone. I always liked GM’s approach to racing. Even brand new crate motors which I’ve purchased before come with no warranty. It’s made crystal clear when purchasing. Same should apply with marine etc.

I always figured it would be best to just bake in the software for buyers to tune and modify as they please but that doesn’t seem popular with the commifornia tech crowd

[108]

I bought the motor, it's mine, I'll do damn well what I please with it.

[4Speed]

I wonder what a new Mercury Racing motor would cost if you could "opt out" of the warranty at the time of purchase? I suppose you would lose some value if you sold it when it should have been in the warranty period as you would have nothing to transfer.