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Wayne, don't listen to these fools talking about their etecs, verados, yamahas, zukes, etc.. You need to stick with the reliability, speed and miserly gas consumption of a classic 125 horse Force engine. I happen to know of two you can but RIGHT now for the low price of 500.00 dollars each. They are in the back of someones yard holding up the side of a storage wall ......
A few months ago I had some questions about Etec motors. Didn't buy one, but would have had I not found an almost new Yamaha.
Certainly I will think twice about posting another question like that here with the nasty responses. Seems uncalled for to me unless I am missing something.
__________________ Splashing around here in the middle of the U.S.
Last edited by Alvincat; 11-10-2009 at 10:29 AM.
Reason: kant spel
I didn't know I was asking such a sensitive question. I feel like I just kicked over a bucket full of rattlesnakes in the Methodist Church.
It is a question asked a lot here, you could have done a search and seen all the previous replies over and over. If you did not want to know what people thought why did you ask? Were you looking for just positive answers? Or just negative ones. If you think there is one correct answer there is not. Some people love them, some do not, some think there is a little advertising based service items and some believe there is not.
Bottom line is that what brand does your service center you want to use have the most experience on? What do they think? If they think they stink then just maybe you want another brand. If they love them then buy away.
Lot of difference between positive, negative and NASTY.
Opinions are one thing, and that's what this is all about. And then there are demeaning posts. One the one that really is bad seems to assume that the o.p is negative on the subject.
Sorry to sidetrack this thread, but people please be civil.
__________________ Splashing around here in the middle of the U.S.
Often times Etec owners come out swinging when ever there is a ? posted either positive or negative about there Engines. I really don't have a dog in this fight, but can only add that they often seem to be priced higher then the competition. I have been in one boat before that had one was powered by a single 250 and it was plenty of power for the 24 foot boat that it was mounted on. I do have another friend that has a 200ho on a Canyon Bay that I saw at the dock one day at Port Canaveral and when I asked how he liked his motor he said that he would prefer not to discuss is.
__________________ My Suzuki 200's have tons of Torque, please no more lame talk about having to change the oil. Fish On...
Last edited by HighSpeedPursuit; 11-10-2009 at 06:25 PM.
I think part of the responses are due to the fact that the op may be just trying to start something. When have you ever heard of dealers talking negatively about their inventory?
As far as changinf the gear oil, there is no good reason not to change it often, no matter what the manufacturer says. every 50-100hrs. is a good idea. I like my fluids to come back out looking the way they went in. You know you have clean internals which is a good thing. My last pickup truck I changed the oil in it every 3-5k with synthetic and it was still coming out just as clean as could be when I sold it at 190,000. Did it need to be changed that often, hell no, but it was good for it and gave me a good feeling knowing that the internals of my engine looked like they did when it came out of the factory. Did I waste a little money there and on my gearcases, yeah, but if I can't afford spending a little extra money on oil I probably have no business having a 35k truck and outboards that cost 15k apiece. One man's opinion.
As far as changing the gear oil, there is no good reason not to change it often, no matter what the manufacturer says. every 50-100hrs. is a good idea.
Yes its a good idea to change it every 50-100 hours. But there is a good reason not to HAVE to change it that often.
If your boat is kept in the water and you put a lot of hours on the engines (which I do) then service every 300 hours eliminates the frequent haulouts....and if you need the services of a marina that will add big bucks to that $30.00 gear lube change.
The "cheap" marina/boat yard close to my house is $200.00 minimum to haul it out, block it and put it back in. Then you can add $20.00 a day if you don't dump it back in the same day.
Lucky for me I have a trailer and a ramp a block from my house. But there was a time when I didn't have a trailer and I had to pay hundreds to haul it out for simple service.
Do you have to buy that ridiculously expensive oil for the E-Tec? Is it really any different from other 2 stroke oils? as I stated earlier in the thread, I beleive in spending a little extra to make sure things are done right but I don't beleive in paying a premium b/c evinrude or yamalube is printed on a bottle.
I use the XD50 at $18.99 a gallon and burn it at an average rate of 70:1. If your engines are set to run TCW3 then you can run any TCW3 oil, I use the BRP XD50.
If the engine is set for XD100 then you must use XD100. It can be found for as little as $20.00 a gallon in bulk if you bring your own jug and up to $40.00 in a factory sealed jug. If your engine is set to use this oil it will burn less of it.
The oil is a non issue to me. Its much easier to simply pour oil into the tank once every couple of months than it would be to change oil in 4 strokes....which would require hauling the boat.
I speak from experience as I owned a Wellcraft with twin 250 hp E-tecs and have tested the exact same boat with Yamaha 250 hp four strokes.
I bought into the “two stroke has more torque” argument and paid an extra $ 2,500 just to get the E-Tecs when I ordered the boat new. My dealer tried to talk me out of getting the E-Tecs and in hindsight I wish I had listened to him as it turned out to be a very costly mistake.
I used the boat a lot for cruising and at those speeds the E-Tecs easily burned nearly 3 gph more than the same boat with four stroke Yamahas did. I didn’t believe it until my dealer took me out on the same boat he had in stock with four stroke Yamahas and I saw it for myself, both boats had the same weight and sea conditions too. Gas is starting to go up again and I believe next year its going to be even higher so you are wise to consider which engine will get the best fuel economy.
I kept a log of all my expenses. Over the 300 hours I owned the boat it cost me an extra $ 1,800 in fuel to run the E-Tecs over what I would have used with the Yamaha four strokes. Additionally I used the xd100 two stroke oil from Evinrude and got about 80-85:1 at cruise. I used right at $ 2,400 in oil during the 300 hours I owned it. ( averaged $ 40 a gal for the xd100 ).
I know someone will ask so here is how the oil came out. I used the boat alot for cruising and burned 25 gph for about 180 hours of the 300 total I owned it totaling 4500 gal in gas. I got an average of 80:1 with the xd-100 and that came to 56 gal used, and at $ 40 a gallon that came to alittle over $ 2200. The rest of the time was spend idling and trolling and I saw a much better oil ratio and figured during that time I burned about 3 gals of xd-100 costing $ 120. So add them together and it comes almost to $ 2,400 just for xd-100 two stroke oil.
If I had gone with the four strokes I could of changed the oil and gear lube myself and saved thousands in combined gas and two stroke oil expenses.
As if all these extra expenses to run the E-Tecs weren’t bad enough, my greatest loss came when I tried to sell the boat. I ended up getting $ 12,500 less for my boat than the exact same boat my dealer had recently sold with four stroke Yamahas 250's on it. ( Actually my boat even had a little less hours and better electronics on it but it didn’t help)
Buyers will NOT pay anywhere near the same for a boat with E-Tecs as they will for the same boat with four stoke Yamahas. My broker was one of the top Wellcraft dealers in the country and did an excellent job of marketing the boat as well, so it wasn't for his lack of trying.
It also took me alot longer to sell my boat too and that again was because it had E-tecs. My old dealer won’t stock new boats with E-Tecs anymore because they take so much longer to sell. The number of interested buyers is much much smaller for a new or used saltwater fishing boat with E-Tecs than the same boat with four strokes.
All totaled with extra fuel, two stroke oil, loss on resale, and extra storage ( because it took so much longer to sell my boat ) I lost nearly $ 20,000 - and just because it had two stroke E-Tecs instead of four stoke Yamahas.
If you have to go with a two stroke because of a weight issue go with the Mercury Optimax hands down. Mercury recently refined them and they have state of the art engine electronics, DTS, more service centers, better prop selections, and get much better fuel economy than the E-Tec.
Learn from my big mistake – don’t get the E-Tec, best of luck
Setting aside what you like for a minute; what do you see as you travel around different areas of the country sitting on the back of non-Brunswick boats? I see more Yamahas than any other brand. That is what speaks volumes to me. I agree that all todays engines are very good quality; but especially in saltwater, Yamaha seems to be the brand of choice, where indeed there is a choice.
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