90 etec vs 4 strokes

[raginrooster]

I am looking for anyone with experience with the evin etec's. I am looking at several used boats with etec on them and wondering how fuel efficient, noise, power, trolling speeds, etc the etec's are compared to major 4 stroke brands. any info would be appreciated

[smoker62]

:popc1:

[walleyejohn]

Raginrooster,
I have one that I am very content with on my 618t.
I did add a Merten's steering unit onto the motor and it is just a pleasure to make long runs with especially in rough water.
You just touch the key and it starts instantly.
Quiet and I can get it to troll down to about 1.7, anything slower and use either the Maxum or the Vantage.
Lighter than a number of the other 90's but it sure does have some torque out of the hole even pushing this heavy Ranger.
Great on fuel & oil and very clean running.
I could not be happier.

Good Luck
walleyejohn

[scott3206]

I have a 2009 90hp etec that I purchased last year. Only ran it for one season, but so far I'm very happy with it. Has unbelievable torque. Very quiet, and great on gas and oil. I run the xd100 oil. No smoke, lots of power.And winterizing it can't get any easier. Trolling speeds can be altered by having in gear rpm's adjusted.Hope this helps...........
Scott

[Johnnielund]

I have a 2008 75 HP E-Tec. Outstanding piece of machinery. Amazing torque / hole shot, quite, smooth, (at idle, in gear you can stand a coffee cup on it). Off- season storage is sooooo simple. Excellent warranty. You will not be disappointed!

[capnlee]

I have been running my 75hp E Tec (same block as the 90) for 3 years now with no major problems.

Fuel efficiency: Outstanding. I have a 19 gal. tank and have fished for 9 days straight on one tank. That was a lot of trolling and a lot of time on the electric motor, but still...
Noise: as quiet as any 4 stroke. I can carry on a conversation without raising my voice up to about 4500 rpms
Power: It has plenty--Great hole shot.
Trolling: I can troll down to 2.3 with a 13p aluminum prop. With trolling bags I get down to 0.8.

It is also very stingy on oil. I run the XD100, which is expensive at 40+ dollars a gallon, but a gallon will last me about a year or a little over 100 hours.

Here are the specifics on my boat from another post:

Boat: 2006 Lund 1660 Classic Sport--900 lbs. dry
Motor: 2006 75hp Evinrude E Tec mounted 1 hole up
Gearcase: 2.0:1 Stock
Prop: Stock 13p BRP Aluminum
Top GPS Speed: 33
Load: Gear, fuel, full livewell, 400+ lbs. of fishermen
Elevation: 4,200 feet
RPMs: 5500
Notes:
With a 15p prop, top speed increases to 39 mph, but trolls too fast.

Oh, and the 2008 and later 2 and 3 cyl. E Tecs are NMEA 2000 compatible. I wish mine was.

[Stripehunter]

I had a hard time making that same decision last year. Went with an EFI four stroke (honda BF90). The motor is heavy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Etecs and optis are not loud at all, but the honda is truly quiet. Fuel economy is amazing as well. The new etecs and optis are great motors, and the comparison to a four stroke are very close. Power to weight the edge will always go to the 2 stroke, noise and fuel will always go to the four stroke. I chose the Honda 4 mainly because of its disturbing quietness and bulletproof reputation and fuel economy. Started both my hondas up the other week after nothing aside from a full tank of stabilized gas in december. Fired up and ran like I was just running them yesterday. Granted the etecs and optis are much better in this regard than two strokes have always been, but I'd still put the Hondas up against any of them in that situation. The bf90 design is only a couple years old; they've addressed the dogging hole shot reputation the older ones had. But, if you want a quicker/faster setup and will sacrifice some in the other aspects, a DI 2 stroke is the way to go.

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but somebody needed to vote for a four stroke.

[2catch1]

Owned a 90 etec (2006) for about a year. Mine was not a good experience. Bad fuel pump, trim hydraulics went bad, and ran like **** trolling. Had a recall also, which was the least of my worries. Most guys don't put these etecs to any real test....my dad has one and loves it, he also doesn't run it half as much I did mine. His also has had trim issues, updates and recalls too, and a new engine computer and it still kills his battery, yes he still loves his. These things troll for crap after a couple hours. I live 4 blocks from lake michigan and we fish salmon a lot. After a couple trips to the dealer for plugs fouling($11 each!) the tech was honest with me...." you should have never been sold this outboard, you troll too much, it is a 3 cylinder 2stroke." About a month later (2007) it was gone and I now have a Suzuki 90. 100 lbs heavier, much quieter at idle and it is 3mph faster than the etec!!! Like I tell people if you go from a carb 2stroke to etec you'll love it. If you go from a fuel injected 4stroke (like I did) to etec you'll miss the 4stroke a lot. I missed my old 50 Suzuki after our 1st outing/breakdown(fuel pump...2:36 into). Now let the crazy BRP people out to rip me apart for spreading the truth!!!

[Amberjack]

I am going on my 4th year with my 90 E-Tec and I am very happy with it. I ski, tube and fish with it and it suites all my needs well. I would reiterate what the first 4 posters say about the tourqe, fuel efficiency, and noise levels of this motor. The only thing I have done to the motor is put in set of plugs after 2.5 years of use and take it in for the recall 2catch1 refered to (the fuel filter had to be replaced). I put in the water last weekend for the first time since October and it fired immediately and ran perfectly. I'd probably have to disagree with stripehunter that 4 strokes are better in that respect. I am sure both are great at starting but my motor starts instantly, it doesnt seem like it tuns over a full revolution allthough I am sure it does. If I trolled most of the time I would probably consider a 4-stroke but I do not so there is not anything that I am not happy with. Just something to consider, 2catch1, stripehunter and I all have the same exact boat and 3 different motors that we are all happy with. That tells me that with modern motors you would probably be happy with any of them unless you got a lemon, but I think all manufacturers produce one of them from time to time. I do not know what kind of real test anyone else puts their motor through but my 90 E-Tec has has passed my test with flying colors for 3 years.

[walleyejohn]

Ragin,
I am not going to get into a p*****g match because everyone's experiences and opinions vary greatly.
It depends upon your needs and pocketbook.
I believe that most all the engines we are talking about are pretty good power plants.
They have to be or they would not survive with today's discriminating buyers.

The final piece of the puzzle that swayed me was the 7 year warranty on the motor.
At the time it was several years more than I could get from any other manufacturer without paying.

Hopefully you'll choose wisely Grasshopper!

Good Luck,
walleyejohn

[1625rebel]

I looked at 75 etec and 75 Yamaha closely. I believe they share the same block's with their 90 hp counterparts. My dealer even offered mentioned the 75 etec could be chipped to become a 90. Nothing earth shattering here on the comparison:

Advanatages:
Etec: likely has more low end punch, lighter
Yamaha: trolls down lower, efi makes cold water starts so easy, inline 4 is so smooth, though I've heard the Etec is smooth for inline 3?

Both are very quiet, fuel misers, and have low emissions. I like the simplicity of the Etec, but in the end just didn't know enough people that ran them to be as comfortable. I ended up with the Yamaha EFI because I troll a lot and pull skiiers less often. If it was the other way around, I would have gone Etec.

The Yamaha is an awesome motor and I'm very pleased.

[big_crappie]

Owned a 90 etec (2006) for about a year. Mine was not a good experience. Bad fuel pump, trim hydraulics went bad, and ran like **** trolling. Had a recall also, which was the least of my worries. Most guys don't put these etecs to any real test....my dad has one and loves it, he also doesn't run it half as much I did mine. His also has had trim issues, updates and recalls too, and a new engine computer and it still kills his battery, yes he still loves his. These things troll for crap after a couple hours. I live 4 blocks from lake michigan and we fish salmon a lot. After a couple trips to the dealer for plugs fouling($11 each!) the tech was honest with me...." you should have never been sold this outboard, you troll too much, it is a 3 cylinder 2stroke." About a month later (2007) it was gone and I now have a Suzuki 90. 100 lbs heavier, much quieter at idle and it is 3mph faster than the etec!!! Like I tell people if you go from a carb 2stroke to etec you'll love it. If you go from a fuel injected 4stroke (like I did) to etec you'll miss the 4stroke a lot. I missed my old 50 Suzuki after our 1st outing/breakdown(fuel pump...2:36 into). Now let the crazy BRP people out to rip me apart for spreading the truth!!!

I got your back!

[Unlogged Eric Olson]

Suprisingly enough, though 4 strokes seem to troll slower, if you get the dealer to program the E-Tec engine to idle at the minimum setting, the E-Tec will troll as slow or slower than the 4 strokes. The 25-30 for example will troll at half the speed.(did the test myself) and that was vs all the competitive 4 strokes.

The other thing that is important is if you spend a lot of time trolling 2 stroke direct injection provides the best ability to acurately control fuel atomization so all the fuel is burned, especially at slower speeds. No 4 strokes have direct injection in the marine industry, therefore MPI or SMPI (multi-port or Sequential multi port injection) is the best that's out there. Do they run well? YES! but long term idling will cause dilution of the oil as the engine doesn't combust all the fuel that is injected. That's one reason for more frequent oil changes in certain use applications suggeested by the Mfg's.

Lastly, the E-Tecs now have FRI (fast rise inductive) ignition which lengthens plug life well beyond anything ever experienced in the marine industry.

As anything mechanical. it can break. However, as a manfacturer, designing a product with that in mind would dictate less parts means less things to go wrong. Regardless of you choice take the time to research your options and ask the dealer the right questions, pertinent to your use.

[capnlee]

I will have to agree with Amberjack. All the outboard companies make pretty good motors these days. The DFI 2 strokes and EFI 4 strokes are all pretty darn good power plants. No matter what motor you buy there is a chance you will get a bad one, so the MOST IMPORTANT consideration in my mind would be the dealer and their service center. I can tell you that while overall I have been very happy with my E Tec there have been some issues. First, the dealer didn't rig my motor correctly and it was nightmarish to get things fixed. It's a very long story, but if you are interested you can read all about it here:

http://bbcboards.zeroforum.com/zerothread?id=126697

There was also the fuel filter recall, my oil tank cracked and had to be replaced, the shift switch was replaced and there were a couple of updates that needed to be done. All this was taken care of under warranty, but it's a long drive to take the boat in. Since I started taking my boat to a service center other than the original dealer things have gone far more smoothly. If you can get quality service that isn't too far away you will be doing well. I wouldn't hesitate to have an E Tec on my next boat. I also wouldn't let the brand of motor be a deal breaker if I found a good deal at a good dealer.

[raginrooster]

Thanks to all who posted, good insight and hopefully I will get a good one!!