Experience with Evinrude E-Tek?

Dunno. I do like the lighter weight. But as a practical choice I expect the answer is size sensitive. The best 250 brand may not be the best 25 brand! Simply run a Google search on the phrase "e-tec vs 4 stroke" and you will get a ton of hits on the various fishing sites.

Kelly

I had an owner that put brand new ones in 2005 200hp. In 20 hrs the port engine blew the powerhead. I have experience with others too. The injectors are a fortune, sometimes one will run perfectly and the other will have issues over and over again. Parts are expensive and they can be problematic to where they're never right.

I'd recommend an optimax if you're going for the weight. The only inherant issue they have is they sometimes go through an air pump.

If you get rid of them before the warranty is up. I have run a pair of 225hp Verados '06s and they have been trouble free. Besides you're not dumping gallons of 2 cycle oil in at $25 a gallon. If I was going with a 2 stroke, it would be optimax. If I was going with a 4 stroke, it would be verado. The Yamahas run nice but I have seen a lot of corrosion issues with the 4 strokes now. One the oil cooler ate itself through on a 225 and it's in the mid-section requiring the lower unit and power head to come off to get to it. Another one ate through the cylinder head. etc etc.....

I agree about the Optimax being robust. But they are loud buggers, compared to a 4-stroke.

Kelly

I personally would go with a 4 stroke. The e-tech's and optimax's still have a funky exhaust smell when idling at the dock and such. The 4 strokes are quieter, more fuel efficient at lower rpm's (idle speed, slow speed, trolling speeds, say 1200 rpm's and under), you're not constantly adding pricey oil, you only have to do an oil change every 100 hours (verado's) which is a piece of cake and only around 6 quarts, you can't smell them when they're idling at the dock usually. When you factor the $25 of oil for every 50 gallons of gasoline you're burning, the 4 strokes cost less to run a lot.

A Yamaha hpdi burns around 5-6gph between idle and 1,000 rpms. Optimax's are similar. The 225 verado's burn less then 2 gph between idle and 1,000rpm's usually around 0.8 gph. So for trolling and idling around harbors and stuff they burn nothing. The only time the 2 strokes are more fuel efficient is around 4,000 rpms and not by much......

Go-Play,

I agree with Capt. J's statements on Opti's. I don't have any experience with Evinrude's version of 2-strokes under atomized pressure, but Mercury finally finished ahead of the competition in reliability. The 3.0 liter Opti blocks are robust and the lower units are too.

I've had a pair of 2003 200 hp Opti's, since 2004. Bought them with 115 hours off a government go-fast boat. I'm pretty sure they lived a hard life before me, but it was a short life with an open, tax-payer checkbook. They have about 500 hours now.

Here are the issues I've had over the past 4 years...

• Replaced one fuel spray rail.
• Replaced trim pump seals on both motors. They have failed again.
• Replaced cowling decals on both motors. They have curled again.
• Replaced rubber lock-down retention boots in the lower cowl.

The only regular maintenance required has been poppet valves and thermostats every 100 hours, along with a couple of gear lube changes.

I've had no-less than 30 Mercury outboard motors over the past 35 years. At one time, I felt like a human Guinea pig for Mercury and swore off purchasing another black motor. That is, until a few years ago when I bought this last set of Optis. Although these motors give off a little smoke and have some vibration (after all, they ARE 2-strokes), I would buy another set of Optis without hesitation.

One nagging concern I've had about the 4-strokes is how happy the oil in their sump is when the motor is stowed at a big angle, or on its side, or whatever. Not an issue for 2-strokes, except the Optis do have a honking huge oil reservoir under the hood.

Kelly

The smaller 4 strokes can usually be stowed on 3 sides and not one side. It's relatively simple to drain the oil also if you feel that's an issue. I couldn't see removing and stowing any 4 stroke over 40hp..... I don't know of anyone that does that.......