Somebody mentioned ETEC. Screw ETEC and their 2 stroke.
Was at the river this morning, bright and early. Catching fish before anyone even bothered getting out of bed. Anyway, by 8am they were coming out of the woodwork, so to speak. I'd already limited out many times over but anyway, a bunch of guides were coming out. Most are Shawnees with 40/30 Yamaha jet and a few 50/35 Honda's. Very few mercury's. ONE was an ETEC jet. I was fishing near the ramp and the ETEC launched, he fired the engine and I could hear it plain as day. His customers hopped in and off they went downriver, probably to the famous shoal that I know of, only accessible by jet and/or canoe (or drag a prop driven boat over it, though it's really too swift for wading). Anyway, most of us are in the low to mid 20's for speeds on that river; anything bigger/faster really isn't designed for the shallows. So this guy with the ETEC takes off, full throttle, and I heard it for over 10 minutes straight, so what? 5 miles or so? Man that thing was noisy.
Anyway I continued to drift with the current down river to the first shoal, about 2 1/2 miles down from the ramp. Wore 'em out too. Got to the 2nd shoal and I heard what I thought was a motor running out of the water. It was a little foggy so I couldn't see real far, 1000 feet maybe? The motor sounded horrible, running very rough, I figured it might have been someone running one on muffs up at the boat repair shop. Nope. Shawnee with an ETEC appears through the fog. They get up to me and asked if I knew anything about motors. ETEC? No, what's going on? He says it has real low power, runs extremely rough, using a ton of fuel. I don't know. I'm not an ETEC guru, told the man, if it were a Yamaha I could tell ya, but I know nothing of them. I asked if they needed a tow, and sure enough, the thing didn't have enough power to pull it across the first shoal which is a narrower part of the river, and shallow, so I had to hook a rope and pull as best I could. Drug bottom a little, but they made it back to the ramp. I made sure to stay close just in case they needed another tow or whatever. Get to the ramp and they loaded up, said it used a little over 1/2 of the 6 gal tank of fuel, and then said he was headed for the dealer. Customers not happy. I recognized one of them as the brother of an old girlfriend, and I offered to take him along since I had an empty seat. He politely declined, and I was done for the day; and loaded up & went home.
I sure want to know what's going on with that ETEC. Maybe an injector or high pressure pump issue? Don't know. I reckon it could also be a sensor, or a dead cylinder or something. 2 things I know. Don't put a jet foot on it (noisier than any motor I've ever heard) and I question the reliability. Sure can't work on it at the water, well, unless you know your ETEC's. I don't and I admit it.
I did get the opportunity to run one at a demo, and honestly wasn't that impressed with it, for what it costs and it's weight, I can't see any advantage. Speaking specifically of the 25hp version, and this was in late Spring, 2016 when I was involved with it, maybe they've gotten a little better since then. I dunno. Also ran a suzuki prototype, both 20 and 25hp, and neither was all that great, about average, some things I liked others I didn't but overall, it wasn't any better than anything else I ran that day-including that old outdated Yamaha 20hp; and the big heavy 25hp. There was a prototype Yamaha there too, which was nothing like what is in production; it was a bad dude, but as I said, completely different than what is currently being offered. I actually think it was a lightened version of a 40 with derated horsepower based on how it sounded and ran. Then Merc had their offerings (Tohatsu's), and then the TLDI, which I kinda liked. But for what I do, which is a combination of things....hunt, fish, fish on lakes, and then in creeks, the old heavy and slow 4 stroke Yamaha will work just fine.
Lot of guys like them. I was on the fence, but after this deal, I'm off that fence now.
