E-TEC Experience

[Sawdust]

Again, I think your dealer messed up in this case. The required instrument was just automatic for me -- part of the package. The dealer said it was required and included in the cost. I'm sure you will like the E-Tec. I also have a little vibration (not really objectionable) at about 1350 rpm. Maybe the nature of the beast. My son-in-law's 90 Honda does the same thing! Guess it runs in the family.

I find the E-Tec to be great on fuel consumption. I'm trying to gather some publishable fuel comsumption/MPG data but shrimping and lingcod fishing always seem to get in the way .

Best of luck!!!!

Dusty

[tpbrady]

Dusty,

I had some vibration at about 1800 RPM to start but it has smoothed out. I have about 18 hours on the engine with varying loads. Now I'm using a 13 3/4 x 15 prop which when loaded about 400 lbs heavier than when I was running a 14 x 17 prop generates 4950 rpm WOT and just shy of 31 mph on gps. It was trimmed up to just short of cavitating. When left fully down it reached 29 mph and 4700 rpm.

Is this in the ball park of what you are seeing?

Tom

[Sawdust]

Veddy, veddy close. Plan to put 500 pounds of shrimp aboard tomorrow and see how it does with a load. The weather guys predict 30 mph winds tomorrow so may have some seasick shrimp.

Wind 'n' waves have kept me in the 10-12 knot range for a few days - sweet, sweet boat, eh? Slow down when it's bumpy and watch the whales. When the wind goes away I'll give you some top end numbers.

Dusty

[tpbrady]

Dusty,

I got in about 118 miles this weekend through anything from flat calm to 4 to 5 feet of wind driven waves on the bow, the stern, the beam and every quarter. I estimate about half the time we were bow down at about 3200 to 3500 rpm. We were heavy on the way out with a kayak on the roof. GPS speed ranged from 12 to 16 mph in the rougher water to 22 mph in calmer water at 4100 rpm. Total fuel burn was 32.5 gallons. I did a couple of short full speed runs on flat water and got up to 5000 rpm and 31 mph with one empty tank and one half full gas tank, 10 gallons of water, two people, a lot of wet clothes, a kayak on the roof, and soggy inflatable canoe and probably a few extra gallons of water since we were out four days and it rained six of them.

Tom

[Byrdman]

Tom... That sounds like a great trip.... and great numbers too. By chance did you keep up with the hours on the motor on this trip? I think I am going to start just keeping my back up hand held on the dash and running on my next fuel tank(s) of trips... just to see what my overall moving average speed is, and my overall gph is. They were suppose to put in new pumps at our marina while I was in Japan that are suppose to run 24/7 which would make toping off at the end of a trip a bit easier.....or not...and just see what happens as an average for a month.

Dusty: Hope you got that 500# of shrimp...and with that....who really cares what your fuel mileage is.... That is a successful trip!! Also Dusty... take a look at the pics that Wanderer posted from our Nashville Gathering... you may get a bit homesick...but know the vessel is truly loved and enjoying life in the SE.

Well, I have been home for over 48 hours and no boat time yet...so going to hope on FreeByrd for a day or two...and get away from a few honey-do-projects.

[Sawdust]

Tom --

Great trip, and good numbers. Very close to mine, but the weather is still wet/soggy/windy so my "real" numbers are yet to come. With the Navman the fuel numbers look great, but I haven't been able to top off the fuel each trip to double check. I really like the E-Tec and am installing one on my 19 ft. tin boat.

Pat --

Welcome back to the real world! So glad you had a good trip. Many memories of that area, but ain't going back! I saw the great Nashville pics, and you are right! I'd sure like to have been there -- my old TC looks great, and in good hands. Thanks.

Dusty

[tpbrady]

Pat,

I didn't keep an exact log but I estimated between 11 and 12 hours. We were 6 hours on the way out covering 68 miles, 3 hours of low speed touring, and 2.5 hours on the way back covering 38 miles.

Tom

[Sawdust]

Tom,

Checked today -- we get the same top speed and WOT rpm. At easy cruise into 25 knot wind-driven chop against about 1.2 knots of current I cruise 14.5 knots at 3,500 and burn 3.5 gph on the Navman... the Navman isn't calibrated yet, so that's just a guess.

With the 600 windlass, anchor and rode forward -- 1/2 water, full fuel, and lots of heavy shrimp gear (and shrimp ) the 22 is beautifully balanced with the E-tech.

Dusty

[tpbrady]

Dusty,

It looks like we are developing a good performance baseline for the E-TEC. I do have a 9.9 Evinrude 4 stroke on the stern also so I may have a little more weight aft than you. I find myself wanting to move more weight forward when the boat is full of fuel. I originally planned to mount kayaks over the rear deck, but decided the weight a little further forward would work better. I have been using my inflatable canoe as movable ballast. It weighs about 45 lbs and when going out it is dry so is stored in the v-berth. On the way back it is stored in the cockpit on whatever side needs the weight.

Tom

[JEMSTONE]

Hello!
We are picking up our new 22ft Cruiser with a 90hp E-TEC this month and I have a few questions for those of you with the E-TEC.
Is the engine governed for the break-in period like gljjr mentioned? I have read the only change is that the oil input is higher.
What seems to be a good all around prop? I live a long way from the dealer and would like to get the right prop figured out.
I would like to put a Yamaha T8 on the transom - along with trim tabs and a swim step. Do you think there will be enough room to mount everything?
Thanks to everyone on this site for all of the great information - it has been invaluable while we have been ordering our boat. Matt

[tpbrady]

Matt,

Dusty probably has a few more hours on his 22 than I do, but after about 30 hours I have settled on a 13.75x15 prop. As indicated in an earlier post, I get about 31 mph at WOT 5000 rpm with a moderately heavy load. This is right in the center of the recommended rpm range. I orginally started with a 14x17 prop and got 32 mph at 4750 rpm but the boat was light. I think Dusty is using the 15 inch prop, so for lack of more data, I would go with the 15 inch.

There is no break in period, but I do have one thing to have the dealer check when you pick it up. My E-TEC kept returning a no oil alarm on start up each day. I would clear the alarm by going through the winterization/prime procedure. The engine would then operate without any problems that day. It was finally corrected with a new software load and hardware map. If you are planning a sea trial then ask when was the last time the oil system was primed and test run. If it's been more than a day then press with the sea trial. If the problem happens in the sea trial, go ahead and prime the oil and press with the sea trial but have the dealer call Evinrude for the proper software and hardware mapping. If it doesn't occur then you are good to go. It might be a good idea to ask the dealer to check the engine specifically for this problem. If he has already test run the engine after mounting and rigging, ask him to run it up again the next day for about 20 minutes. I was always able to induce this problem within 20 minutes.

As far as a kicker and trim tabs are concerned, there isn't much room. We tried a couple of different arrangments for a 9.9 Evninrude 4 stroke and settled on a hydraulic mount on the port side. I steer using the ETEC and maybe lose .5 mph. There was no easy way to use an easy steer or similar arrangement due to the offset between the two motors. It's not ideal but works reasonably well. I tightened up the steering on the kicker so it always stays straight ahead. I'll PM you a couple of pictures of the mounting arrangement. The main issue we ran into with the 4 stroke kicker was its size. It was always in the way of the main engine when mounted directly on the transom and the trim tab was in the way. The only thing I would consider doing differently is mounting the kicker on the starboard side. With the weight distribution on the CD22, if you are carrying two passengers a lot of the time, you may find you need more weight on the starboard side if you are full of water. With two people on board I always first burn fuel out of the port side to lighten that side of the boat to lessen the need for using trim tabs. When that tank is near empty the boat is in proper trim without trim tabs.

Sorry for the long answer, but nothing on boats is necessarily simple. How deep is the water in Bismarck?

Tom

[Sawdust]

Matt,

My E-Tec ran beautifully from the git-go. No break in period, and the added oil for the first couple of hours is onboard computer controlled. You won't know the difference. Even in the enriched mode there is no smoke.

I run the 15" prop. Works fine. Mounting a kicker is another ball game for sure. It gets crowded if you mount directly on the transom -- if you can pry Tyboo Mike away from his Sturgeon pole and get his wise words, his bracket for mounting is my favorite -- think he even has drawings somewhere in the archives. I like to control the kicker from the stern when salmon fishing, and Mike's setup is great.

Dusty

[JEMSTONE]

Tom and Dusty,
Thanks for the input. I will try the 15" prop, I'm assuming that is a three blade prop.
I talked to Andrew today from C-Dory. They have the dealer install the swimstep since they are also mounting the engine so I should be able to try different positions and maybe even different brands of kicker engines. I would assume that since a Honda 75hp and a Honda 8hp will fit on the transom with the trim tabs that the E-TEC and a Honda 8hp would work as well.
Our biggest body of water in North Dakota is Lake Sakakawea- it's the 3rd-largest man-made reservoir in the United States in terms of storage volume. The lake is 178 miles long, has 1340 miles of shoreline, and has a maximum depth of 180 feet, however it is currently at it's lowest level ever by far.

[chromer]

I have 144 hours on my E-Tec 90. It died at idle one day, and started sputtering (missing) after trolling a few hours last weekend. It finally cleared itself and we made it to port at a reasonable RPM.

Went and talked to my local Evinrude rep. He immediately said replace spark plugs. He said the little special platinum tip on end of spark plug was worn off. He says it happens alot with people who troll slow or use idle alot. I guess the E-tec puts out a longer burn in that situation - and it eats away at that metal tip. Rep also told me how to properly install plug with gap facing the fuel injector. I replaced today, and sure enough, E-tech back to normal good. I am just going to replace them now with my annual maintenance routine.

Just want to pass the info along, to maybe save someone else the time. In my dads era, 2-strokes could foul a plug easily. I even pulled the plugs and inspected them last week for that situation and didn't see anything a miss.

[tpbrady]

I've been the route with BRP and got to the point getting 20 hours per tank of oil, fouling plugs at idle, smoking after trolling or idling, and generally running cold, I now have a 90 Honda on the back of the boat. BRP insisted it was running in accordance with the specs. If it was I got to the point I didn't want a motor that ran like that. If it wasn't I didn't want it either as it had never run correctly.

On the positive side, on the last cruise with the ETEC, the cooling system seemed to have healed itself. I suspect the blow off valve that opens above 1800 RPM or so was jammed open for the last year, and whatever was holding it open released on Saturday. It was like someone threw a switch. My crewmate and I both looked back and said it sure sounds different. I then looked at the Navman and sure enough fuel economy was pushing 4.5 mpg at 22 mph. I had never seen that number before so it forced me to check the fuel flow meter. Sure enough based on distance covered and gallons burned, it was reading correctly. All of a sudden fuel economy increased 30%. Amazing what a few degrees makes. However, at the end of the day, it still burned 40% of the tank of oil in a little less than 10 hours.

Tom