Gee, Mitch step back from the Kool-Aid. If you have 6% of the market you are failing to educate a lot of idiots. I don't know anything about there record of durability, I don't see them that often on the lake.
It seems to me that if a dealer in Corpus Christi had to solve a cooling problem for them the rest of their engineering would be in question.
Time will tell, my only experience was with a local dealer pricing a 150 with out controls and prop for $14,800.
George

ETEC is a fairly new technology, and I'm not even sure what is so different about it than the others. The 60 deg head 175/200's have only been out a year. Who knows what the verdict will be in 10 years. Published reports do show that they get no better mileage than the Optimax or Vmax, or get better performance. Then you add on the price and maybe the decision is not an easy one.

I hear what quantity mitchb is selling of them, but I do know that the numbers pale in comparison to the numbers of Yamaha's around Galveston complex.

And, if anything I am biased towards Evinrude because that is all my family has owned for 30 years, but I chose to go a different route mainly because I couldn't fathom the benefit from the extra cost.

My father has a 200 ETEC 60 deg head on his gulfcoast, purchased last year. There is a stumble between 1500-2000 RPMs that they are having a hard time duplicating in the shop right now. This does not surprise me, because it is much worse the warmer the air. I think the answer may be it is running rich in that range, and the cold denser air helps correct that.

I am sure it is correctable, and other than that he has been happy with it. Good luck.

JUST LOOK AT THE POSTS ALL I SEE IS MERC PROBLEM MERCURY TROULBLE I HAVE OWNED EVINRUDES FOR OVER 20 YEARS AND ALL I HAVE HAD GO WRONG WAS A ELECTRIC CHOKE QUIT WORKING

Hey f-w we replaced about 20 h.p.d.i powerheads last year and zero e-tec power heads,these engings have been out for over three years, no engine released in history has had anywhere near the reliablity sucess right out of the chute that the e tec has. There will alwas be the "my brother's cousin's sister's friend's barber's once removed brother in law that had a problem with his e-tec kind of guy out there.
but the e-tec is chewing up massive chunks of market share in coastal regions, It is the engine of the future.Yamaha will alwas make great motors and so will merc.

Hey f-w we replaced about 20 h.p.d.i powerheads last year and zero e-tec power heads,these engings have been out for over three years, no engine released in history has had anywhere near the reliablity sucess right out of the chute that the e tec has. There will alwas be the "my brother's cousin's sister's friend's barber's once removed brother in law that had a problem with his e-tec kind of guy out there.
but the e-tec is chewing up massive chunks of market share in coastal regions, It is the engine of the future.Yamaha will alwas make great motors and so will merc.

Hey f-w we replaced about 20 h.p.d.i powerheads last year and zero e-tec power heads,these engings have been out for over three years, no engine released in history has had anywhere near the reliablity sucess right out of the chute that the e tec has. There will alwas be the "my brother's cousin's sister's friend's barber's once removed brother in law that had a problem with his e-tec kind of guy out there.
but the e-tec is chewing up massive chunks of market share in coastal regions, It is the engine of the future.Yamaha will alwas make great motors and so will merc.

let me explane it again, the over heat problem has nothing to do with the motor, the problem is with tunnel boats like ultra cat shallowsport ect., boats with big square tunnels feed highly aerated water to the engine. the oversized intake fins fixed the problem.

remember any of these motors are machines and they are going to break a certain percent of the time, there are morons out there that can tear up an anvil if they have a chance

HighlandsChris,
It sounds to me like you're external exhaust relief port is getting submerged during plane out at 1500-2000 rpms. That will increase back pressure and reduce horsepower until the rear of the boat frees itself from the backlashed water. Once that happens, your engine can breathe freely again. This is probably why they can't reproduce the problem in the shop. The old carbed engines really had a problem with this, because the lack of EFI (or DFI) would allow the fuel mixture to get very rich causing the engine to cough and smoke. A good way to test this theory is to try to plane out with the motor trimmed up. Obviously, this will cause the bow to go sky high, but I bet your engine revs quickly without stuttering. Once above 2000 rpms or so, start trimming under to safely get on plane.

Where did 6% come from, on the gulf coast e-tec is destroying the comp in numbers,cant speak for the fresh water lakes. Mitchb "Standing by"

Bass Hog,

Thanks for the reply.

It has done this from the outset since he bought it. It had a recall for an injector I believe, so he put it in the shop and we thought that would fix it. This was in the summer.

Back out, same problem. This is really bad and noticable. When the weather cooled, it lessened. During a warm spell, it would get bad again. I took it out myself a few weeks ago and couldn't get it to do it. It was about 50 deg that day, and low humidity. The last time I was out with him (I always drive it when we are together) was early Dec on a 75 deg humid day. Very bad stumbles.

So, with this inconsistency and the weather issue, it cannot be what you describe. Since they can't duplicate it, he will just wait until it gets warmer and take the dealer and his mechanic out one day and educate them. We will see what happens from there.

BTW, somebody upthread said HPDI Vmax's had problems. I talked with a Yam dealer awhile back and that is exactly what he told me, and in fact had 2 in the shop at that time. I looked at them myself, one with the head off had a burned piston and all other pistons were clean. I talked to the mechanic a bit and he didn't have a clue what was causing it. I asked if the water ports were clear and he said yes.

I think last year Yam started putting a different low water pickup inlet on these motors. I don't know if this solved the issue because at the time I wasn't aware of this addition, so I didn't look at those motors to see if they had it.

I tend to think that it did.....the air/fuel mixture and timing curve is precisely controled and I doubt they had a lean condition epidemic in their motors. Even so, I would think they would have an overheating shut down mode or alarm or something...

Hey, mitchb, the hpdi is a whole nother story, how many hpdi where sold in north america compared to the e-tec, e-tec has not been on the market that long now and because of its price range have not sold that many u.s. wide, and the few thousand that are out thier, in this state, are coming back to the dealers for repair/warranty, that should say enough.

Does it matter what any of us say. You are going to fish with what you want to fish with no matter what opinion any one gives you. Mostly I see that if you can get a boat rigged with a E-Tec for 5 or 10 thousand less you will get it and then you will be on that band wagon because that is what you own and that goes for any motor I have not seen many people dog their own motor. If I were to say I like Merc better than my E-Tec the next time out on the water with my luck I would be paddling back to the boat ramp Get you a boat get a motor and just go out and fish and don't worry about anything but catching fish and taking care of the motor you own treat it good and it will treat you good.

Hey fw where do u get your crazy info if you dont work in the industry you dont know enough to even be qualified to make the comments that u make, I deal with one of the biggest shops in the state every day, and the e-tec has been out for over 3 years there are thousands of them out there,and are experiencing a fraction if the problems that the HPDI has. The problems with power head failure is getting much better.Yamaha dominated for so many years they got lazy and have been left in the dust,I suspect they will wake up and come back strong. Fw how do u explane why yamaha has the worst warranty in the industry(ie declining warrwnties) Mitchb "Standing by"

a 150 e-tec is within 800 of a comp.hpdi the warranty alone makes the e-tec a better value. 7 years is huge