ETech 25 Issues--Fuel Line??

Jeff Reardon

Jeff Reardon

Well-known member
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Calling all ETech owners and gurus . . . .

My buddy has a 1 year old ETech 25. It ran fine last year and was serviced by the dealer at the end of the season.

He took it back out mid summer and had a fuel issue. It would run fine at idle, but after several minutes running at higher RPMS would drop back to idle. This happened several times and eventually the engine began stalling any time he tried to throttle up.

He figured it was water in gas, so changed out to fresh fuel and had the same issue about a week ago. This time after the engine stalled the 2nd or third time it refused to start, and we limped home on a little kicker.

He took it to the dealer (still under warrantee), and they diagnosed a fuel line issue. I did not hear their explanation, but he said they thought the fuel lines initially installed were too short, so they installed new, longer ones. (I think the issue was something about the shorter lines getting pinched if the fuel tank shifted, which doesn't make sense to me.)

They claimed they tested it at high throttle for a long time with no issues. We took the boat out this morning (flat calm, 50 degrees, good day to work out any issues in daylight before we are breaking ice in the dark), and it's doing the same thing. Ran fine at idle for a half hour, then ran at WOT for about 2 minutes before dropping back to idle. Tried again and it ran about a minute; then the third time less than that. At that point we headed back to the launch at idle.

Any ideas? Bad tank or pick up tube in the tank? Clogged fuel filter? A problem with the fuel/water separator?
 
Jeff,

I am not at all familiar with E-techs. That said, I'm going to throw out something to consider. Does it have a over heat sensor which shuts it down to idle speed? If so, maybe the sensor is faulty.

Does the dealer have a spare tank and fuel line that could be hooked up to trouble shoot? If the problem goes away you have found the source.
 
Dave, That's what I was thinking. If an Etec thinks its overheating, it wont go over idle speed.
 
I have a Etec 30 HP, just over 1 year load. I had it drop back to limp mode once last year. Power was restored after a few seconds. Had the boat out yesterday for the first time this season and it went into limp mode three times. Each time it was after letting off on the throttle a bit after running wide open and lasted just a few seconds. I scanned using Evinrude diagnostic program today and the fault codes were for high temperature. Max temperature was 196 degrees. I am going to call my dealer about it next week. Sounds like you have a similar issue.
 
I have had this issue with my ETech (30 hp) 2 times. Both times it was the water pump/impeller. If the motor gets hot, it will go to idle. Under warranty both times. Dealer is a good friend and said he has seen this several times. Probably due to not using often enough (1st time happened at 10 hrs, but motor was 1 year old) and the rubber of the impeller getting hard. My dad has a 25 ETech, uses his boat several times a week if not every day. He has never had the same issue. By the way, the motor is on a modified Devlin Cackler I built. I should have documented my build on here. I've got some pics but I was born about 100 years too late and not all that great on computer stuff. If somebody would give me a link to instructions on how to post the pics, I will put them up.
 
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I had a 90 hp E-tec for a couple years. Mine had an issue where the oil level sensor (in the oil reservoir) would act up in a following sea. The alarm soils sound, and the engine would shut down to an idle. It annoyed me pretty bad, but all-in-all that was a great engine.
 
Is there an alarm when the motor overheats (or the sensor incorrectly thinks it's overheating) as there is on some other motors? We had nothing but the sudden loss of power as fuel (??) cut off.

I don't think it's the oil reservoir issue, as it was happening on a flat calm morning.
 
There's supposed to be an alarm for an overheating situation, but it could be messed up. Does the impeller water that shoots out the back of the engine feel hot?

Another thing to consider: My E-Tec had to be programmed for the XD-100 oil. The other option was XD-50 oil. I'm not sure which would be ideal for extreme cold (I see you're in ME.) If the engine isn't programmed for the proper oil, it might be a problem?
 
Jeff,

The etecs have an internal fuel reservoir, ethanol fuel leads to a buildup of water. As I understand it the water does the double whammy, the motor won't run right due to the water and the water ruins the reservoir parts. A 25 on a friends boat cost more than $1,000 to repair and we are told it is common. The motor problem you describe is exactly what happened in the case described above.

That same 25 had a broken impeller out of the box, it overheated within sight of the boat launch on the maiden voyage. There is an audible alarm when it overheats.

Not to say they aren't good motors, it's otherwise been very reliable over about six years.
 
There's supposed to be an alarm for an overheating situation, but it could be messed up. Does the impeller water that shoots out the back of the engine feel hot?

Another thing to consider: My E-Tec had to be programmed for the XD-100 oil. The other option was XD-50 oil. I'm not sure which would be ideal for extreme cold (I see you're in ME.) If the engine isn't programmed for the proper oil, it might be a problem?
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Robert, I can't recall which version my buddy used, but I do remember that when he had the boat delivered last fall, he had to send it back so they could change to the proper oil. Seems the folks at the boat dealer were not aware people used boats in Maine in December.

Thanks for the all the ideas. He took it back to the dealer today. They said there are no readable codes on the computer, which may suggest it is not overheating.

Also not a cold weather issue. He had this first occur on a sunny day in early September, and yesterday it was about 50 degrees.
 
Could it be going into the fogging mode? When i bought mine eariler this year the tec at the dealer said not to turn the throttle all the way unless i was going to fog it out. Mine does that automatically.
 
It's back to the mechanic--again, no readable codes--and the mechanic says "I think it's something in the computer."

This time he'll take it out and test on the water, not just in a tank.

Still under warranty, thankfully.
 
I have had a similar problem with my 30hp etec and found that there was a crack in the quick disconnect "female" fitting that attaches to the motor. I replaced the water pump after two years (95 hours) just to be safe and had the dealer run the computer diagnostic and he found no significant issues other than sudden stops which are mostly caused be cedar stumps and forgotten sand bars.
 
I have had a similar problem with my 30hp etec and found that there was a crack in the quick disconnect "female" fitting that attaches to the motor. I replaced the water pump after two years (95 hours) just to be safe and had the dealer run the computer diagnostic and he found no significant issues other than sudden stops which are mostly caused be cedar stumps and forgotten sand bars.
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Around here we have the cedar stumps, but far more chunks of unyielding granite. They are murder on props. A friend of a friend owns a Yamaha dealership and likes to say that the rocks in Pemaquid Lake put his kids through college.
 
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