E-Tech Opinions

I believe there was a computer problem with the first one he had 3 boats ago. I never did hear what exactly was the problem was. The motors have been great since.

Thanks, Bill

BRF does make a strong motor. The Etec on Jeff Harcey’s boat is very impressive pushing his 1900 Lund LE into the mid-50’s from time to time. There’s not many tin boats that will hit mid-50’s on GPS.

Yeah, but didn’t Jeff blow up that motor?

Fast yes, do doubt. But it would be nice to be the guy doing the towing rather than being on the other end of the rope..

Jeff’s motor did throw a cylinder. I don’t know that he ever did find out what caused it but BRF did get him fixed up and back on the water.

I bought a 115 Etec this spring.

Pros= Good hole shot, mid-range torque, quiet, uses little oil and fuel.

Cons= Poor top end speed, kills when trolling, fills with sand easily and doesn’t seem to have a plug to unscrew for cleaning it out, not as easy to start as they say.

I havent owned the motor for long but this is what ive seen so far… If I had to do it again Id look more closely at Yamaha and Mercury

Chris,

About a year ago I remember you touting the ETEC as the greatest engine ever… Now you seem to have changed your tune. I personally bought my Etec after doing all the research I could and ,believe or not, I remembered your posts embracing them as a reliable performer. Now it seems you are saying the opposite. Is this merely driven by sponsorship or did you in fact have negative experiences with Etecs? I may have missed some of your posts along the way explaining this, so sorry if that is the case.

You are absolutely right. And as time has gone by, they have proven to be…let’s say less reliable than they were out of the box. (Again, in my opinion.) Maybe Mike W will chime in and give you an update on the motor you speak of.

I have had a number of motors over the years, and have had good and bad things to say about all of them.

If you look at my post, I did say that they are a good motor.

I am not happy with what BRP has done (Or not done) for some IDA members that have had issues. I will let them speak for themselves.

Fair enough. Did your Etec eat sparkplugs? Hopefully I can get some time on the water soon and give mine another workout.

Yep. Good and bad in all motors. When my motor is running like it should its a great motor. Great hole shot, easy on gas, trolls nice, very easy on oil, Quiet. Now I havent run a compairable Yam. or Merc. so I cant really compare a etech to them.
On the other hand as far as reliability goes I have had my fair share of problems with my motor. I think my biggest problem was not having knowledgeable service people working on it in the 1st place. Time will tell on this as the motor is running again fight now but Im still waiting for it to leave me stranded again.

Even with the problems I have had with the motor it tough to label them as a bad motor or not. I have talked to a lot of people I feel that are trust worthy that have good things to say about them. Here is a example of a post I put up to try to find some info on my motor.

E Tech?

Im still up in the air on what I think. If you see me with a Yamaha on back you’ll know what I decided.

Im on my second set of plugs in a little over a year. Might of been able to get a little more out of each set but I spend to much time on the water to not have the motor running top notch. Problems with worn plugs start with missing while trolling and slow speeds. There also seemed to be a issue with hole shot after spending a lot of time trolling in cold weather. Motor acted like the plugs carbed up. It will be this fall before I see if this happens again.

My parents have a 40 HP E-Tec on their pontoon and love it. They purchased everything new last Spring and have not had any issues and have not done any maintenance on it to this day. Dropped it in the lake this spring and it fired up right away. Nice and quiet, good on oil, and good on gas! No plug issues here.

Every brand will have issues, thats a given.

Chris, I think it is fair to say you had a lemon. I have heard very few cases similar to yours. All engines companies produce a lemon once in a while..you were lucky enough to get one.

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I will never go back. Yamaha 4 strokes are bullet proof, and no one can deny that. The smooth power, and rock solid power band is enough for me.

Wait until you guys start replacing all those spark plugs in the ETECs. They eat them like candy

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This in my 3rd ETEC. Before that I ran Yamaha’s. The ETEC is the best engine I have ran. I am on my 3rd one and have yet to need a spark plug. I wrecked a lower unit once..but that was my fault

If you are interested in an ETEC check out the Ranger Demo Days. They have several in MN throughout the summer and it gives you a chance to ride in a Evinrude powered Ranger boat so you can form your own opinion about the motors. I have worked many of these demo days and for the most part, everyone that rides in the boats is impressed with the motor. Lots of power, very quiet and very reliable Oh, and they start like a dream, no choking etc, turn the key and it pops off every time, I REALLy like that

Chris. Everyone has there opinions. You like Yamaha, I like Evinrude. I run a 225HO etec and fish a lot of tournaments a year. I run my boats hard and through very tough conditions. I have yet to have a problem with either my DFI or me Etec that has not been caused by me.

I know a lot of guys who run Yamaha’s and like them also. The biggest grip from the Yamaha guys has been oil and expecailly fuel useage. Again. All outboards are relativaly good these days. Every year they are getting biult better and better.

I had 244 hours on my last Evinrude DFI 250 and the only thing besides sparkplugs that was done was a lower unit. I did not mention the lower unit was my fault, hitting a wing dam at 60. Not much forgiveness there!

It does not matter if it is outboards or automobiles. More and more these days, running, idling, and operating concerns are fixed by computer program updates. No more hard parts being replaced.

Just my opinion.

Tim

Thanks for all the feedback guy’s. Like I said before I run a Yamaha now and can not think of a single complaint that I have. That said I’m going to stick with Yamaha.

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Im on my second set of plugs in a little over a year.

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Mike;
What exactly was wrong with the plugs?
Where they fouled out or did the electrode burn off?

Also,
were the mechanics able to determine if it was a fuel/air mixture that made the plugs bad?
Or
Was it an electrical problem, where the plugs were not getting the approprite spark?
Or
Was it a spark ignition timing issue?

With the 81 hours as stated in my above post, that I have on my motor again 3/4 or more have been trolling at 2.5 mph. I’ve not fouled a plug or had any starting issues….barely turn the key and it’s running. 81 hours isn’t a real lot of hours yet the key is trolling speeds for hours. If I troll for over 3-4 hours with out opening it up……I may get a little puff of smoke when I finally do open it up…..but I’d say that would be expected after trolling for that period of time. I do have mine set up on the XD 100 also. Two times it wouldn’t start……I forgot to put it in Neutral after loading the boat…..thus I unloaded and it wouldn’t start until I figured out I had left it in forward after I loaded it…..popped it back into neutral and I barely turned the key and it was running…. as of right now I’m very happy with my E-Tec….Time will tell….Whatsa

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An oil change on a 4 stroke will run you around $85 and lower unit gear oil replace $25 per year. That would be around $330 for 3 years. A etec will need no maintenance for the first 3 years.

The power of the etec is like no other. The hole shot and accelleration will inpress you. I know that my etec being a 225HO is super smooth and extremely quiet.

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How did you arrive at $85 for an oil change and $25 to change the lower unit oil? I spend roughly $25 to change the oil and filter, and $10 to put in synthetic lower unit lube.

I like my 115 opti-max

I would consider how long you may own the engine. I don’t know what Yamaha offers for warranty but the ETecs are 6 or 7 years I believe. This would go a long way for me. A friend of mine just spent $10,100 for a new power head on an optimax. If it had been an ETec under warranty for 7 years he would still be ahead of what his boat is worth.

If I’m going to own my next boat for more that 4 years I will probably go with the ETec.

I have seen it time and time again here. Everyone compares their “NEW motor with their “OLD” motor which are not fair comaprisons. Today’s Technology is drastically changing. Not picking on anyone as their is many examples of this even in this post. But one guy above says his “NEW” DI E-TEC uses way less oil than his “OLD” regular 2 stroker Mariner. Well, of course it does. Like I said, not picking on that guy, but soemtimes the obvious gets over looked. Let’s remember to compare apples and apples and like James said unless you have 1st hand knowledge of comparable motors lets keep all the other BS aside.

Tom –

Can you clarify your quote on the Yamaha’s using fuel “The biggest grip from the Yamaha guys has been oil and expecailly fuel useage” – are you talking four strokes here? That would go against most of the published data that I have reviewed to date.

ted

Goldpig. I called the dealer and got the prices of having them do it. All prices were an est only!

Backlash. Glad to hear you are staying with a Yamaha! You have to run what you are comfortable with!

In response to the warranty question:

I got a 6 year warranty on my yamaha, i purchased when they were giving the extra 3 years free. Otherwise i believe it is 3 years and u have the option to buy 3 more for a few hundred dollars. They do often have offers like they did this spring, for the extended warranty or cash back though.

Anyone know how your to supposed to clean sand out of the indicator hole on the etecs? I dont want to have to take it into the shop after everytime i run it in some shallow water. My old motor I’d just unscrew it and blow it out. There is nothing to unscrew on the etec. I cant be the ONLY one with this problem..

Sorry no answers here bigstick. Havent had that problems yet.

Gary. I have no idea. I am most likely a typical out board motor owner. The only thing i know about the engine is when it does not start I am mad. Do I need to be a mechanic to own a E tech. Hopefully I have found a better mechanic now that can help me out with the rest of the issues. I will make sure to keep your questions handy next time I am into the shop.

Backlash. I think your right with going with what you are comfortable with. Now make sure you are buying fro a good dealer that has a good service department just in case there is any issues. Forget about lowest price you need good people to stand behind your motor.

The pee hole on an etec is huge compared with the other motors I have owned. It has been my experience that when sand gets caught and plugs it up, it is stuck in the constriction of the nipple that gives you the stream of water. No such constriction on the etec. One thing I can mention though is that the cooling system must be fairly intricate as it easily takes twice as long for the motor to drain as my older motors of the same size did. I would think that a flush with a garden hose and the ear muff adapter would do the trick though if it were to get clogged.

:confuse

i do not under stand why there is such a debate, all 3 major manufactures(yamaha, mercury, evinrude) build a great product. Were you/what you decide to buy should depend on location and dealer. Time on the water is of the up most importance when it comes to a seasonal intrest. When it comes to vacation, it is my opinion that you need to find a dealer that you can work with and has a service department that is capable. “every body has a problem it is weather it is resolved in time were it does not affect your free time”

by the way you red blooded americans there should only be 2 choices since only 2 are built in the usa

forgive my spelling

I got my etec back from the shop. Apparently there was just some sand in it. After $300 and a 3 week wait I finally gave it a good workout. I was impressed.

Ps- Never take your boat to Smitty’s in Lake City to get worked on, unless you want to get the shaft and wait for a month to get it back. Unbelievable

Hey James

Like you said before unless you have first hand experience don’t chime in here.

as far as my 90hp e-tec that I had problems with the motor detected a failure and shut down before I could blow it up. what it was was the cylinder and when we contacted BRP they knew of the problem there were a few bad cylinders out there that they were waiting to get back I had one and so did Jeff Harcey. needless to say in less than 24hrs I had a brand new motor on my boat and that was with Smitty’s Marine in Lake City not even knowing what the problem was getting me back on the water.

and Chris I believe if I look back a few years I will find a ton of posts by you saying that Mercury was the best motor on earth. Then Evinrude was the Best thing on Earth and now Yamaha.

Evinrude is a great motor

so are others

but theres a reason they don’t make a 4-stroke in the bigger engines out dated technology to heavy and bulky and why mess with all the headaches of the oil changes

I just want to put gas and oil in my boat and fish and with the E-tec I seldomly have to do that.

as far as plugs go I can troll for weeks and never foul a plug or have any problems.

Chris I believe you even bragged about that after fishing Mil lacs or is that forgotten already as well

just my 2cents but I have owned 4 e-tecs 2 Direct injects 4 Johnsons 1 bad Mercury and 1 yamaha.

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but theres a reason they don’t make a 4-stroke in the bigger engines out dated technology to heavy and bulky

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The highest horsepower outboards made are 4 strokers. Yamaha makes a 350 HP model and my understanding is that they will follow this one up with a 400 HP model down the road.

Yamaha 350 Horsepower Outboard

I’m not sure what you’d put it on…. this thing is a 5.3 liter V8!