OK guys, I did it. Bought a used 08' etec 90 (in line 3) less than 30 hours.
It was a 25" brute. The 25's use the big V6 lower gearcase, while the 20"ers, at least through 08, use the small gearcase. A dealer put the motor on a pontoon and the customer wanted a short shaft and the dealer accomodated him and cut her losses selling the 25 at such a deal. The big gearcase uses the big props (14.25- 16") the 20" is limited to 14" or less.
Created a few problems but I think it worked out great. I beefed up the transom big time as I had a seperation issue a while back. Used some of Sea Wolf's advice. Put a 17 1/4" high x24" wide 3/8" alum 6061 plate on the back, 5/8" x 24" backer plate on the inside of the transom well. 3/8" 6x6 backer plates at the bottom.
I got a CMC manual Jack plate (it's a serious 1/2" plate). between the jack plates 5.5" setback and 5" rise and using the abdolute highest rise holes on both the motor and plate, I get the motor to precisely the hieght needed to match the anti-c plate with the boat bottom plane. Unfortunately this leaves me with no more lift range on the jack plate. I am seriously considering adding another 3/4"plate to lift another 3.5- 4" so that I get back the jack plate range for fine tuning, but I'll try this first. The second unfortunate is that the weight I added largely offsets the weight saving of ETEc over 4 stroke. A big positive though is that the motor lines up perfectly with my 4 Stk. kicker. I have added Sea Star hydro steering new controls and wiring gauges and a s1000 AP which will now control both motors with complete simple tie bar connection. Should make the whole port side kicker mount thing a dream.
There is absolutely no problems with the steering and Jack Plate to 100% tilt. But it is getting really iffy if I don't need to go to a dual axle trailer now. Things you don't fully pre-think!
I put a few pics at the end of the album. will try to get better pics. soon.
Have yet to put it in the water. Still having a few S1000 problems. Hopefully it will not stand on end and pull a titanic on me.
Been spending about 90% hours upgrading 10% on the water but that will soon change, hopefully, and it's dern near as much fun as using them.
and, oh yah, it's darn nice owning a bobcat to lift these babies on and off!
Chris