New to outboards... Any first upgrades I should do?

[beaverretriever]

As a few of you already know, our new boat will be finished sometime in Aug. It is coming with a single 300XS. A friend of mine was telling me about some sort of exhaust re-route that flows a little better and gives it a bitchen sound for a few hundred bucks. Anyone know anything about this upgrade on the new engines?
What other things can I do that are not too expensive but help in either HP or longevity?
Thanks in advance.

[LakeTrash]

Leave it alone and enjoy.
When you do get used to the power and the warantee is gone, call Eric Simon or Wayne Taylor. Eric is closest to you, but either can make your dreams come true.
LT

[warlock]

Are you talking about a poppet valve? Dude, you got a brand new 300xs and you are going to mess with it?! Do yourself a favor and leave the beauty ALONE! That is one badass motor and is so reliable all you have ta do is remember to wave at all of our car boating brethren as you go cruising right by them! What kinda boat is this bad boy gonna hang off of?

[Towndrunk]

WTF is wrong with you new to ob's boats guys? You have a brand new 300 under warranty and you want to mod it? Give it some time to break in and when you're out of warranty then mess with it if you have to. You're going to find out theres a lot of BS people will tell you when in fact they have never been this route themselves. It will get expensive enough on it's own. LEAVE IT THE PHUC ALONE!

[pw_Tony]

After you get the boat back to your house there's an easy mod to make it better....
Back it up to a tree, tie a rope around the motor, and pull the truck forward...
Take the boat over to Performance Jet Boats, have them install a real man's motor, like a 502 or something, and have them work it for a new Dominator pump...
And then you should be all set, and you'll love it and actually sound cool

[MR HARLEY]

<-----Just shakes head.

[Tom Brown]

Take the boat over to Performance Jet Boats, have them install a real man's motor, like a 502 or something, and have them work it for a new Dominator pump...
That's all well and good but what if he likes women?

[mach22buck]

leave it alone

[STV_Keith]

Agreed...leave it alone. Not much out there for the XS motors, plus with that air pump and funky injection, it's way different than the 2-strokes of old.
Your friend was probably talking about dry-stacking the exhaust, where they re-route the water outlet away from the exhaust which makes it louder and supposedly make some more power. On my 2.5, I could not feel a difference. It was louder though.

[cougarcat]

I agree with everyone........except for the car motor guy. Leave that bad boy alone. Run the recommended Merc oil (probably Premium Plus), break it in correctly, and change the lower oil every 15-20 hours (10 hours if it is a lefty, but for a single its most likely a right hand rotation).
The best way to mod is to add another one!
FWIW I'd leave the engine stock even after the warranty is up.
CC