Motec ECU on Merc Outboards

[attitude]

Stole these photos off Facebook but couldn’t find anything online about them. It doesn’t sound like Mercury will be able to stop people from tuning now.

 

[Havaduner]

I don't think they could ever really stop you, but I am sure an aftermarket ECU would void any warranty.

 

[hallett21]

I know Mercury does not mess around if they catch a dealer doing that.

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

The problem now is finding a tuner to tune your Motec outboard.

This is plug and play so should be nearly undetectable. Watch for Merc to void warranties over missing OEM zip ties now

 

[attitude]

The problem now is finding a tuner to tune your Motec outboard.

This is plug and play so should be nearly undetectable. Watch for Merc to void warranties over missing OEM zip ties now

I would assume all the companies that tuned them before Mercury had a fit will now comeback and upload their tunes to a Motec ECU. Not much Mercury can do now other than attempt to void warranties on motors that are still under warranty.

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

I would assume all the companies that tuned them before Mercury had a fit will now comeback and upload their tunes to a Motec ECU. Not much Mercury can do now other than attempt to void warranties on motors that are still under warranty.

Probably. But that is starting from scratch. At least the tuners before just modified a small part of what was was already there, and utilized all the factory failsafes.

I’ve see the guys putting Motecs in UTVs and have played with Motecs in the past. It is a lot of work to get everything to play well together like it does from the factory. Not insurmountable, but there are quirks and risk.

 

[mbrown2]

Crazy....no news of it that I can find nor on their website...

 

[DaveH]

it isnt just the outboarrds. Motec has been working on direct replacement.......no wiring just plug and play......for most all merc marine engines. they have had a replacement system for the QC4V for a couple of years now.

unlikely you would be starting from scratch. these have been developed around OEM parameters so I expect to see it arrive with similar if not the same parameters ready to go.

yeah....merc is going to have a conniption.......maybe that's why the are being introduced via middle east distribution chain of Motec....so as to avoid any interference form merc or the EPA.

 

[attitude]

Probably. But that is starting from scratch. At least the tuners before just modified a small part of what was was already there, and utilized all the factory failsafes.

I’ve see the guys putting Motecs in UTVs and have played with Motecs in the past. It is a lot of work to get everything to play well together like it does from the factory. Not insurmountable, but there are quirks and risk.

This is the QC4V kit that I found when looking for the outboard ECU, claims to be plug and play.

MoTeC > Mercury Racing QC4V Kit - M150M > Overview

Default Meta Description

www.motec.com.au

 

[JUSTWANNARACE]

Probably. But that is starting from scratch. At least the tuners before just modified a small part of what was was already there, and utilized all the factory failsafes.

I’ve see the guys putting Motecs in UTVs and have played with Motecs in the past. It is a lot of work to get everything to play well together like it does from the factory. Not insurmountable, but there are quirks and risk.

I've done a few MOTEC setups on rzr and a few other applications. If you "understand" it's not real difficult. Hardest part is building the harnesses to work with oem sensors. The tuning part is easy at that point. And MOTEC has awesome support!

 

[Racey]

Probably. But that is starting from scratch. At least the tuners before just modified a small part of what was was already there, and utilized all the factory failsafes.

I’ve see the guys putting Motecs in UTVs and have played with Motecs in the past. It is a lot of work to get everything to play well together like it does from the factory. Not insurmountable, but there are quirks and risk.

You just need to know what you are doing. MoTeC M1 is not something for keyboard jammers like a Holley system. It's very advanced, but when you understand how the system works it is WAAAYYYYYY easier to tune than any other ECU on the market as their back end math is so good on calculating the base fuel volume that the tweaks you end up making to the VE tables are very small.

Anyone that every used Autronic back in the day will know how this works, the fuel table ends up almost flat in comparison to a normal PW or Volume based tune.


Merc wants everyone in their sandbox, they have been in bed with the EPA for years pushing all of emissions shit to drive any of their competitors out of business.

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

You just need to know what you are doing. MoTeC M1 is not something for keyboard jammers like a Holley system. It's very advanced, but when you understand how the system works it is WAAAYYYYYY easier to tune than any other ECU on the market as their back end math is so good on calculating the base fuel volume that the tweaks you end up making to the VE tables are very small.

Anyone that every used Autronic back in the day will know how this works, the fuel table ends up almost flat in comparison to a normal PW or Volume based tune.


Merc wants everyone in their sandbox, they have been in bed with the EPA for years pushing all of emissions shit to drive any of their competitors out of business.

Yep. It is no Holley that is for sure.

Agreed 100% it is easy to tune. But building all the cold start maps, and all the dependent tables/values for a “OEM” user experience, smoothness, and safety is more work.

It’s been 20 years now almost but I tuned some Autronic stuff, and more recently M1 stuff but just in race applications.. I just had to make it run around the pits and go fast when floored, not drive down the road to work or anything

I was watching some of the challenges they have had in the SXS world with the plug and play Motecs…things like getting the lights to work and just thought of all challenges getting all the digital functionalities working in the Merc outboard.

Totally doable, just takes time and experience.

HP Tuners for instance sucks to use, but it is a easy lift for the most part to tune and build off what is already there in a stock ECU.

 

[JUSTWANNARACE]

I was tought by this guy! John is super cool and very knowledgeable! Actually does alot of R&D for MoTec and local to me. He tought me alot!

John Reed Racing

johnreedracing.com

Fought with an AEM system(infinity 8) that never worked for shit. That's why I went MoTec!


This is one.. the only thing we couldnt get to work is the polaris PID screen I put in it. Had to go back to the stock guages other then that everything worked great.

 

[lavey jr]

I’m familiar with Motec and all it’s high tech fancy abilities but does this ECU come with a hopped up tune in it? Or does it just give you the ability to tune it? Looking at their website for the QC4V ECU it seems that it’s only a replacement and still needs added self tuning to get performance gains.

Seems like a cool thing for the people not concerned about Mercury and the warranty.

 

[Racey]

I’m familiar with Motec and all it’s high tech fancy abilities but does this ECU come with a hopped up tune in it? Or does it just give you the ability to tune it? Looking at their website for the QC4V ECU it seems that it’s only a replacement and still needs added self tuning to get performance gains.

Seems like a cool thing for the people not concerned about Mercury and the warranty.

MoTeC isn't in the business of selling tunes, they are in the business of self high quality very capable hardware/software to customers that can make it work for the application's demands. They don't sell direct to the consumer for this very reason. This is a business model issue for them, they also don't want to compete with their dealers directly for this reason so there is a clear line of demarcation there.

If you are messing around with tuning any of this stuff you need to be in capable hands with the proper equipment, it's not made for the end user to plug and play as far as MoTeC's policy itself goes.

That being said a MoTeC dealer will end up providing something plug and play to fill this niche eventually, with their own tune and config in it.

 

[DaveH]

I don't think they could ever really stop you, but I am sure an aftermarket ECU would void any warranty.

and thats the issue. you replace the ecu, blow it up, then put the OEM ecu back in......merc would not be able to tell.

 

[hallett21]

and thats the issue. you replace the ecu, blow it up, then put the OEM ecu back in......merc would not be able to tell.

Wouldn’t the ECU show a proper shutdown prior to being swapped? If you blew it up and swapped back to a Merc ECU I don’t know how you would describe what happened?

 

[Racey]

Wouldn’t the ECU show a proper shutdown prior to being swapped? If you blew it up and swapped back to a Merc ECU I don’t know how you would describe what happened?

The warranty is only 3 years, i doubt anyone doing this is gonna be caring about the warranty.

 

[bonesfab]

You mean like the warranty on their deleted tow rig??

 

[HST4ME]

Cool. I'll be scouring the insurance auctions from Florida.

 

[DaveH]

Wouldn’t the ECU show a proper shutdown prior to being swapped? If you blew it up and swapped back to a Merc ECU I don’t know how you would describe what happened?

i dont know what the capabilities of the merc ecu is or isn't......but simply disconnecting the battery....really is no different. there would be NO way to prove otherwise.

 

[Flying_Lavey]

i dont know what the capabilities of the merc ecu is or isn't......but simply disconnecting the battery....really is no different. there would be NO way to prove otherwise.

I'm willing to bet there is an internal data logger on the factory merc stuff so it would record the failure. If there is no recording of an engine failure in the internal logs, then that would lead to believing that ECU was no on the engine at the time of failure.