What engine do i go with ???

[tonycastro1]

Im Going to repower, Tired of throwing good money at this engine. NOW, ZUke i hear is a good engine but has issues with warrenty,Yami has great rep. but is so expenssive,Mercury i hear is high maintanence., Can anyone who has repowered a 24.5 cc give me some feedback as to which way to go. Thanks guys...

[pete]

etecs are supposed to cost less and reqire less maintainance

[fitz73222]

See if you can find the last episode of Ship Shape TV. The G man just went through initial costs and scheduled maintenance for new 4 strokes and the E-Tec. I just caught the last 10 minutes of the show and I didnt have it recorded. I could not believe what they were talking about for scheduled dealer maintenance for these new engines. They were talking about $2000 like it was nothing. Evinrude E-Tec was the least expensive and they don't want you to touch the engine for 350 hours and then hit you with a $1000 scheduled maintenance bill! I`ve owned 2 strokes for 15 years and never put close to $1000 in them. I know we will all have to switch over to 4 strokes some day but I will gladly wait my turn and hopefully they will be lighter and have some performance close to what 2 strokes were.

[flounderpounder225]

See if you can find the last episode of Ship Shape TV. The G man just went through initial costs and scheduled maintenance for new 4 strokes and the E-Tec. I just caught the last 10 minutes of the show and I didnt have it recorded. I could not believe what they were talking about for scheduled dealer maintenance for these new engines. They were talking about $2000 like it was nothing. Evinrude E-Tec was the least expensive and they don't want you to touch the engine for 350 hours and then hit you with a $1000 scheduled maintenance bill! I`ve owned 2 strokes for 15 years and never put close to $1000 in them. I know we will all have to switch over to 4 strokes some day but I will gladly wait my turn and hopefully they will be lighter and have some performance close to what 2 strokes were.

ETEC all the way, I was very close to getting a great deal on a low hour used 225, when I did my restore and re-power, but the deal didn't go through.  I wouldn't even have had to re-rig from the 97 Ocean Runner.  I have the Yami HPDI and it's OK, but my friends have a few Etecs, and they are so quiet, smooth, tons of torque, and great on gas.  I think this video speaks volumes for the Etec.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-7I00cZUE0

[gran398]

Guys am with you, particularly the torque. And especially the maintenance.

Although have to say the 115 Suzy four Fitz and I ran was a good-running motor. Same block Jesse has.

And the new 2 stroke Mercs are supposed to to get great mileage, reliable, and light in weight.

[flounderpounder225]

Guys am with you, particularly the torque. And especially the maintenance.

Although have to say the 115 Suzy four Fitz and I ran was a good-running motor. Same block Jesse has.

And the new 2 stroke Mercs are supposed to to get great mileage, reliable, and light in weight.

I just like the look of that sleek white Etec on the back of that clean Aquasport.

[gran398]

Marc, you're right. Not only do they run good, they look good. Nice shape, color, finish, graphics.....Aquasport eye-candy

[MarshMarlowe196]

Everyone will be naturally biased towards the engine they own now.  For example: I REALLY like my Suzuki and will probably never go back to a 2 stroke engine.  This question has been asked a lot, and the usual answer is to go with the brand that has the best service available in your area.  You can't go wrong with any of the new outboards on the market today.

To be fair, the maintenance schedule claims from ETEC are a little exaggerated.  For example- Evinrude claims you don't need to change the gear lube until 3yrs/350hrs of use.  Well why not?  Have they come out with some new advanced gearcase along with the strategically timed oil injection?

They're just pushing the maintenance interval- you can most likely run the same gear lube in any engine for 3 years (and lots of people do) and get away with it.  And most of the other "maintenance intervals" that Evinrude claims 4 strokes need that the ETEC's don't are "inspection".  There's oil changes, but if you're taking a 4 stroke engine to the shop to change the oil, I'd take your man card.

Sure, you can claim $$$ saved in maintenance, but how much are you spending on 2 stroke oil?  

ETEC's aren't that much lighter than comparable 4 stroke engines.  I've run 2 stroke engines on every boat I've owned up until purchasing my Zuke, and the difference in low end torque between the two engines is negligible.  If you were running a bass boat with a huge hole shot, you'd want a 2 stroke and could tell a difference, but with the performance our Aqua's offer, you really can't tell the difference.

I still hear reports all the time of commercial fishermen racking up 4000-5000 hrs on 4 stroke engines before repowering.  Trust me, these guys aren't strictly adhering to these maintenance schedules.

The maintenance called for on 4 stroke engines is mostly money making ploys by the outboard companies and the dealerships.

[seabob4]

Zuke 300...  

[fitz73222]

The problem I see with the E-Tec value proposition is that BRP is asking the consumer to be part of their product R & D on the consumers dime. So at the end of 350 hrs you have an engine that needs major maintenance. What about stuck bolts, driveshaft spline lubrication, internal fuel filters. E-Tec claims that the secret to the long life gearcase is matched gears,metallurgy,advanced seal design and precision clearances among other things. Well quite frankly, every other outboard manufacturer does the same thing using very precision CNC machining for gear hobbing, line boring,etc. Hands down, Mercury has had the most reliable gearcase designs of any manufacturer for many years and has proven it through racing R & D and durability testing. As Jesse says, any outboard could probably go for 350 hours on original gearlube, buts whats left when you crack that screw and metal fines and sludge ooz out of the gearcase.  I think the E-Tec value propostion gives the average boater a false sense of security about product durability. A good example is pink coolant and 100.000 mile spark plugs that was the rave some time ago in our vehicles that the OEMs claimed as maintence free. So when your cooling system was plugged with sludge and your cylinder heads were stripped from siezed plugs, what did they care? It was out of warranty anyway. I happen to like the E-Tec engine design and I've been a Mercury guy for 25 years. I get 20 years out of an outboard by cutting the factory maintenance intervals in half and afford it by doing the work myself using a very ridged, documented and factory service manual procedures.

[Aswaff400]

i work in a high and dry marina, out of 200+ boats we have in our building, only 3 of them have e-tecs. a 22 pursuit(single 250), a 25 robalo(twin 150's), and a 31 cape horn(twin 250's)... so far im not impressed... a good majority, probably 2/3 of the outboard powered boats are powered by a yamaha, the other 1/3, mercury....

we do have a few boats with 4stroke yamaha's with well over 600 or 700 hours... and we did have a customer that had 3500 documented hours on a 140 zuki...


personally i am a fan of mercury, but ill run my 'Rude till the day she dies...

[Circle Hooked]

Yamaha's are great but i think their marketing is even better than their engines,thats why there's so many out there.

[seabob4]

Go to Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, what do you see on transoms?  Yams...

But do a search on THT on 4-S Yammis, as far as corrosion in the exhaust...

[Capt Matt]

The E-tech is at least 10 years behind in the development of the DFI outboard,
Take it from someone who runs both a opti max and a e-tech for a living there is no comparison.

As  soon as we can find another hull to put that junk e-tech on even though its still under warrenty its gone!

E-tech spent way too much on infomercials and advertising comparing a two stroke to a four stoke just to show us something everyone already knows that a 2 stroke has more torque than a 4 stroke.
If you want the hands down best fuel economy and performance buy a Opti Max. Even four strokes don't come close.

I do have some friends that guide with four stroke suzuki's that put ton's of hours on them and really like them, the problem they have is when they need parts, service etc  it can be very limited.
Capt Matt

[MarshMarlowe196]

If you want the hands down best fuel economy and performance buy a Opti Max. Even four strokes don't come close.

Best Performance and Economy?  Maybe, especially in the performance dept.  There's only so much you can thin a stream of injected fuel- newer outboards are almost exactly the same when it comes to economy.  The compressed air is what gives the Optimax the performance and economy, but its also its downfall.  Do a search on the net- the compressors seem to have a high failure rate.  The only person I know personally that runs an Optimax has already had to replace the compressor in the 1st 2yrs of ownership.



Luckily, it seems that most of these failing compressors are failing within warranty.