E-Tec outboards

C

Capt. Bill1

Active member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
RO Number
2017
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6,127
Anybody have any long term experience with them?

The good, the bad, the ugly?
 
They would be brand new ones. I had heard of the early problems. I was hoping some one had some time on one, or a pair, and could tell me about their experience with them.
 
Co-worker has a 150 HP, 2009 model. No issues. Has about 150 hrs. on it so far.
Went to the Houston Boat Show yesterday. About half of the outboard boats had Evinrudes on the back of them.
Didn't know they were so popular. Around here, Merc., Yamaha and Suzuki are most popular.
 
Only because they are 4 strokes.

E-Tec is catching on in the Bahamas, we see more of them around all the time. Not saying one should run with that. However, the Yammies are on all the boats that get ripped off over here. Seems the bad guys carry the ECU and cut in theirs even if they have been removed. Without question the Yammies are the product of choice and rumor has it they have a 2-3K number on the black market.
 
Have a 2010 30HP E-Tec, but only have around 80 hours on it.

Replaced a 40HP 1988 Yamaha on an AVON 4.00 inflatable.

Pro: Much lighter than similar sized 4-cycles, very easy to start, excellent water cooling system (complete gravity drain), service interval 300 hrs/3 yrs, was able to remove one of the onboard 6 gallon tanks because it sips fuel compared with the 3-carb Yamaha.

Con: Only goes 25 instead of 35, but still puts boat on plane with 4 persons without trouble.
 
They have a lot less moving parts than the 4 strokes too.
That makes less parts to break down.
But that does not mean they will not break down.
I think E-tech is about the best 2 stroke out right now.
 
If I had the money, I would love to hang a set of 300's off the back of Saint Max. I'd be saving between 500 pounds a side and moving the prop aft to cleaner water.
 
Bill,

We have a sister ship that put E-Tecs 90s on the boat (most of us owners have 4-stroke 50s) and regretted it. We took our first Bahamas trip with them. They beat us on the crossing by half an hour and burned 3 times as much fuel. Then, the other year they had to pay to fly an Evinrude tech from FL to Bimini due to an ecm failure. PM me and I will put you in touch with him.
 
I can't PM. But you can Email me at capt(dot)bill11(at)verizon(dot)net
Thanks Kurt.
 
D'oh! Sorry about that. I sent my friend Drew and e-mail and cc'd you on it. I think he put over 600 hours on his E-Tecs before selling the boat. He'll speak his mind to you, that's for sure!

FWIW, I've got almost 1,000 hours on my Honda 50's. Long story short; I'd buy Honda again without hesitation.
 
Honda's are a tremendous engine. The large RIB's the Coast Guard uses around here have them. In fairness Kurt, ECM issue aside, is your hull design a good example of the overall purpose of the engine?
 
David,

I'm not sure how to answer that hull/performance question for this particular vessel. My friend's issue with his E-Tec 90's were totally engine related as far as I know. Long story short; Evinrude's claims of long times between required maintenance are not quite true. Let's see if Bill will post back after he talks with my friend.
 
I'd be interested in hearing about it as well.

WRT your hull, I was under the impression they were semi-displacement/semi-planing; take your pick because I don't know. From what I have read in the company literature over the last year or so was the engines were picked as a part of the total design as opposed to here's your boat, pick your engine. I really was impressed with that idea. IIRC, your particular model had two choices for motors; Honda 50's or Honda 70's as the optimum power for the drawing board planned results.

I could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time!

Can you tell by the above, I like your boat!?!
 
Yes, they're semi-planing hulls. The original design of the vessel was a sailing quad-cat that had two outrigger sponsons that collapsed for trailering. Jerry, the designer, put twin 25hp engines on an early model and was impressed with the performance. Over the years all sorts of different engine configurations were tried. Since the boat does plane, I am guessing the more HP, the faster the boat goes. However, weight is a limiting issue. Ideally, Jerry says that engines shouldn't weigh more than around 250lbs each. Thus Honda 4-strokes are a good option. However, plenty of these boats use Suzuki, Yamaha, and other brands. When my friend re-powered his MC30 with the E-Tec 90's, Jerry was very against the idea. In the end, that boat does cruise in the lower 20's vs. the mid to upper teens of lower HP options, but the fuel-burn is almost 3 times as much. I remember crossing the Gulf Stream with my friend the first time. He made the trip faster than I did, but burned about 3/4 of his 72 gallons of fuel (it's roughly a 3.5-4 hour trip at around 70 miles). My boat, on the other hand, only burned 1/4 tank. I'd only consider re-powering if I could get diesel outboards. Not only would I prefer to have fuel tanks full of diesel instead of gasoline, but the fuel economy would probably improve even further and I'd love to have the extra torque for climbing up larger waves. My last trip home across the stream was 4 hours of going "up-hill" at 8-10 knots and "down-hill" at 19-21 knots. My 50's really bog down when trying to climb mountains :-)

FYI: The MC30 with the 90's is now "living" in St. Michaels. There's now another one somewhere near DC. That makes 4 or 5 MC30's on the Chesapeake so you may see one in person sometime soon.
 
On the tour boats we now have Suzki 90's. 1300 on one set, 800 on the other.

We considered E-Techs, could not get any commerical applicantion feed back, so we stayed away. We we considereing Yam or Suski and selected the Suski.

Previous power was Honda, one boat had 90's got 5,500 hours on them. The other had first Honda 115' they failed, bad heads, factory replaced with 130's. We ended up with 5200 hrs on the 130's.Did not consider Honda, we had a lot of issues. We run in shallow water, a lot cooling issues. They showed a lot of rust early on.

Could not find one commerical use of E-Techs in our area that would give us any postive feed back. Our application is much different then most, we go every day, and a multitude of different operators. We did get good feedback from several rec users, that was not sufficent for us.

Good luck
 
Dang. Over 5,000 hours on the Hondas and you didn't buy again? I do know those rust issues, though. We get comments from the yard we use in FL each year. The Hondas do like to stream brown near the transom.
 
Honda's are about the quietest outboards I have seen.
Only downside I seen so far is cost of parts and service in my area. And they don't like Ethanol gas.
Not sure about newer ones, but some that are 4 or 5 years old or older have issues with E-10 gas.
 
Mine are actually 1998 models purchased in Sweden (don't ask). I do get better speed and performance when burning non-ethanol fuel (Florida/Bahamas), but after no longer purchasing off-brand gas at marinas in Maryland (I buy at brand-name gas stations now since I usually only need 10-20 gallons after a weekend), I haven't had any ethanol problems. I did have problems when ethanol first hit the market with my carbs, but most new larger Honda outboards are now fuel injected. The 10 micron filters I added helped too.

You're right about how quiet they are. With both running I have to keep an eye on either the tachometers or the tell-tails to make sure one hasn't stalled on me. Otherwise, it's impossible to tell at idle.

Bill, did you get hold of Drew yet?
 
quote:
Originally posted by KiDa

If I had the money, I would love to hang a set of 300's off the back of Saint Max. I'd be saving between 500 pounds a side and moving the prop aft to cleaner water.

Click to expand...

David I have thought about the same idea with my Mainship.
Bill
 
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