True, which is why I'd support doing head to head comparisons on a dyno outside of the boat without a pump, since hull design is very ride subjective (and there is no real way to change that).
We see the same issue in cars (different intakes, exhausts, transmissions, gear ratios, fuel etc), which is why for crate motors, engine dyno numbers have become much more popular than chassis dynos, and people are still careful to look at atmospheric data when making comparisons.
I’d consider carbs/intake/exhaust/ignition part of the engine package, and ideally as a consumer I would like the builder to provide some guidance on which are best and to have a way of seeing what some set combinations would do before dropping some coin.
Knowing the engine's specs prior to building a pump would also make prop selection much easier (though then I'd want a pump curve too :grumble: ). That said the land and sea water breaks are mounted to the shaft through the pump after removing the nozzle, so minus the bearing losses, windage and rotating mass (probably the biggest variable), they should be fairly similar results even with different pumps and tracts. Did some more thinking, an AC motor/generator would make a great absorber for a permenant installation, but would be near impossible to do portably (both physical size and needed grid connection to backfeed).
Also did some googling and apparently Riva owns or owned a Huff Technologies engine dyno by the way.