make my merc 50 a 60 and vice versa

[Tom Walsh]

I have just bought an alumimum bass boat with a 06 merc 60 hp efi 4 stroke, it is more motor than I need
on a 685 lbs boat. I have a 2003 merc 50 efi 4 stroke big foot on my 26x. You guessed it. I am thinking of swapping them around. Some have written that the electronic control module is the only differance between a merc 4 stoke 50 and a 60 hp. Hmmmm , does that mean I can just swap out the ecm on each motor.
my mechanically inclined son inlaw looked at each motor and noted a differance in the coils, and the plug that attaches to each of the 4 coils each motor has, I don't know if that means for sure no exchanging ecms. I could derig and put the 60 on the x and the 50 on the bass boat. and then I would want to swap lower units to give the 60 a big foot.
Anyone out there done any good research on this. Is it worth the trouble and risk to the warranty. 2mph ?

any thoughts comments welcomed
Tom Walsh

[Catigale]

I confess I would price out a 60 HP control unit to put on the 50 HP first ..that might be simpler than all that connector work and you have no warranty issue on your 60 then either...

I am not confirming that a 50 and 60 differ only by the ECU - I have heard this but have no first hand knowledge of this.

[Tom Walsh]

I thought about that and tried to look up the cost a long time ago and the merc parts site wants part # or serial # of the 60 merc motor, Now that I have a 60 hp I put in the motor serial # and the ecm (or is it ecu) is $769. I guess that is retail and could be had for less if you know someone. But I still don't know if it is all that is needed to get the extra hp.
and I don't know what the performance gain is.
I think there are probably many others on this board that are interested in a cheap 20% gain in hp.
Tom Walsh

[geocat]

Somebody told me that Merc 50 Bigfoot and Yamaha 50 High Thrust are the same motor. Is it true?

[James V]

From what I understand the block are made by the same people with almost all of the outboards but some of the other parts are different.

I asked my dealier if I could upgrade the 50 to a 60 and he said no. There may be more to it than just a computer.

[beene]

I did a Google search and found a mod to make my 75 a 300 just by adding a rocket to the back.

I let you know how that goes.

[Harrison]

I did a Google search and found a mod to make my 75 a 300 just by adding a rocket to the back.
I let you know how that goes.

LOL! I'm dying! That was great!
Just what I needed this morning!

---Harrison