Patent ID: 7441528

Claim:
An outboard motor adapted to be mounted on a hull of a watercraft, the outboard motor including a cowling and a V-type engine generally enclosed within the cowling, the engine comprising right and left banks of cylinders, a crankshaft arranged to extend generally vertically when an attached watercraft hull is in an operating condition, a surge tank disposed within the cowling, right and left side intake conduits for connecting the surge tank to intake ports of respective cylinders of the right and left banks, the right and left side intake conduits each having first and second openings into the surge tank, each intake conduit having a valve for selectively closing the second opening so as to place the conduit in a long effective intake conduit condition, the conduit being in a short effective intake conduit condition when the valve is open, right and left actuators for actuating valves on the right side and left side, respectively, and a controller for controlling operation of the actuators in accordance with information about engine and/or watercraft operational conditions, wherein the controller controls the right actuator independently from the left actuator.