Outboard recomendations: E-Tec DOA

Cheech Kehoe

Active member
I was out the other day with the kids for about 2 hours and on the way home I slowed down to go under a bridge. She stalled out and would not start. I was lucky enough to get a tow from a good Samaritan. My local dealer gave me the bad news last night. My 90 hp 2005 E-Tec has a badly scored cylinder #1. So I have some options. Replace with new Etec (5year waranty), Replace with other manufacturer or I can get a new head for about half the cost of the Replacement E-Tec (1 year waranty). I loved the E-Tec right up until I got the call about the cylinder. I had planned on this motor being a 20 year motor and it only made it 175 hours. I serviced it annually, have a fuel water separator and DID NOT beat on it. The only fuel additive was marine Stabil added when I filled up. I did not double up on the Stabil.

The Blown E-Tec has spent 93% of its life below 4500 rpms and I am having a hard time thinking about dropping that kind of coin on a motor that just failed after only 175 hours..
I know that there have been several updates and improvements to the E-Tecs since 05, but I am still gun-shy.
The local Yamaha shop is kind of a one lung operation and I didn't really get a good vibe off the 1 day a week salesman that I spoke with today. The price was comparable between the motors.
Any input on the situation would be welcome. Most of all, I do not want to be in this same situation 10 years from now.
 
yamaha.....just saying. There is a reason that even the boat taxi guys in every resort such as Cabo or Puerto run Yamahas.

Burlington is a big city now, they gotta have any other Yamaha dealership in Essex Junction or Williston, look beyond Grand Isle. Who sells the Yamaha snow machines?
 
I am partial to Yamaha..... but I hear there are other brands too....

Shame on the E-tec, they are a great motor.

I would go Suzuki or Yamaha if I were repowering right now....

A Guide friend of ours runs a suzuki 140 - currently over 2000 hours. HOLY POOP.

It's all in the luck of the draw though, to some degree. Anybody is capable of making a lemon, ,my FIL has had a 60 etec that is same era as yours, just passed the 400 mark with only one replaced prop seal (grandkids are good at getting fishing line in there) to boast about.
 
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A brand does not necessarily have the best engine in all sizes. I have a Suzuki 140, the 90 and the 115 have the same block, they are all very reliable. I don't know about the Yamaha or the mercury in a 90, find someone that has one of those engines and ask them if you can.
 
175 hours and DOA ?
How could you even consider buying another one?
I have always been partial to Suzuki also, I have a 1986 40 Hp. I have no hour meter but I would say I have upwards of 1500 hours and it served double duty as a fishing motor and also a duck boat for a few years. Most I have done was clean the carbs,water pumps and lower unit oil and that is a simple task on the motor.
A friend bought a brand new 30 Merc this year and he has been down for almost 3 months now with carb problems where i wouldn't run.Now they finally are getting him a new carb. I wouldn't have put up with that crap with a new motor!!

Good luck on your choice of re-power
 
Most of our work boats run Yamahas and they get run hard. We rarely ever have any problems and when we do its normally because of water in the fuel (ethanol).
 
we have Suzuki on our Goliath and our fishing boats. Very reliable, very easy to do maintenance on a very simple design. I think that the problem with the ETEC is the amount of electronics their system has. More electronics around a marine environment the more chance for failure IMO. On our fishing boats we run multiple GPS systems, multiple radios for the sheer reason what do you do if it fails? I certainly do not want the heart of my boat run by electronics plain and simple. The Etec runs on a computer program that injects just enough oil into lubrication system to comply with emission regualtions and to keep the engine from failing. If the computer fails, the lubrication system fails enough said
 
Thanks for all the input. I went up to see another Yamaha dealer today and it was pretty steep. The nearest Suzuki dealership is 2 hours away...I have never heard a bad work spoken about the Suzuki... As for how could I buy another ETEC? The dealer has always treated me really well and we have a personal relationship. Additionally, Its about 2 miles from my house and I couldn't possibly get a second bad motor. I emailed Evinrude and they replied with a stock response that I should go through my dealer. I will call Evinrude in the next couple days and see if I can get anywhere that way. One of the reasons that I would consider buying another ETEC is not having to buy all the gauges and rigging. Gauges and controls could be $500 plus. I will keep everyone posted and I really do appreciate all the responses.
 
My Dealer went to bat for me and things worked out. The "Dawn Treader" will be powered by an E-Tec again. The Yamaha would have been WAY more $$ and my evinrude dealer has always been really good to me. The dealership will be tearing down the old motor in hopes of getting definitive proof of what caused the failure. The new motor does come with a 5 year warranty and support from a dealership that I have a relationship with. I may be foolish. Only time will tell. Thanks again for all the help from the best damn forum on the web.
 
My Dealer went to bat for me and things worked out. The "Dawn Treader" will be powered by an E-Tec again. The Yamaha would have been WAY more $$ and my evinrude dealer has always been really good to me. The dealership will be tearing down the old motor in hopes of getting definitive proof of what caused the failure. The new motor does come with a 5 year warranty and support from a dealership that I have a relationship with. I may be foolish. Only time will tell. Thanks again for all the help from the best damn forum on the web.

A good choice, I think. I love the smell of a two stroke in the morning! Even though the e-tecs don't quite smell enough for me :D
 
one of the few times i went fishing with my uncle Bill was from an older 19' walkthrough with a johnson ocean runner out of Westbrook.

there is no better smell than an old two stroke in the morning on the salt

good luck with the new outboard, did they try pushing evinrude's new motor on you? that thing is pretty funky looking
 
Mercury went through a huge volume of Optimax blocks their first three years after introduction, nearly pushed them to the brink. Now, they are a very reliable high pressure direct injection powerhead. Yamaha has a couple of powerheads that have had individual cylinder overheating issues within the block that got phased-out. From what I have heard, Bombardier is honoring the vast majority of the warranty claims on the E-tecs that are failing. Good luck with the new motor!
 
I got 7 years of hard use out of a 2007 70hp E-tec. >1000 hrs. Got a 2013 70 E-tec now that's been 100% Already got more hours on it than you got. Got a 2015 90hp E-tec that's been running great so far.

They owe you a new powerhead in my opinion. That's ridiculous! I paid over $9000 to get that new 90 on the boat. For that kind of money I expect the engine to work for a long time. You should examine your options. The 70 I had burned a cylinder too. The computer did it. I suspect that's what happened to yours as well. The computer screws up the fuel/air/oil mixtures and the next thing you know it's burned up.

Why don't you track down an old carburated 2-stroke and get it totally rebuilt. There's a guy in New England somewhere I ran across while trying decide what to do about needing a new engine earlier this summer, (got the 90 etec). Hey collects 2 stokes and tears them down to nothing and puts them back together. I called the guy and talked to him. Was impressed. He wanted about $6500 for a rebuilt 4 cylinder Evinrude. Also sells Yamaha's and mercury's. I'll try to find his web site and link it in here. Personally, I'd like to turn the clock back to when engines were simple and much cheaper. The crap that you pay for now days isn't making the motors run better. It's just there to meet EPA requirements. THe manufactures spend a ton of money making us all believe the new technology that costs a fortune is soooo wonderful. I'm not buying it. They had the 2-stroke figured out and it was solid. The performance/longevity/power:cost ratio was good IMO.

I think it's funny how advertisements tell people about all the money they'll save repowering with new fuel efficient engines that cost a fortune. That's crazy. Run your old 2-stroke until it explodes if you want to save money!

Also bought a 70hp 2000 Evinrude 2-stroke that had been rebuilt this summer too. I love that thing! There is nothing that motor doesn't do that the New E-tec does. Paid $1800 for the old 2-stroke. Still haven't seen how long it'll last though. Got about 100 hrs on it now. The top cylinder was scorched. Got the cylinder bored out..new piston..then new rings on the other cylinders. This is an experiment. will be interesting to see how this turns out. I'm looking to divide the number of hours I get out of this/any engine buy the amount of money I put in it and see how much I'm paying for an hour of run time. Seems like a real good measure of usefulness? If an old rebuilt engine doesn't last as long but is cheaper to own relative to the amount of use I get out of it then???

Anyway, sorry about your motor. That just stinks! Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
 
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