My Evinrude E-Tec Experience

I'm posting this as a warning to anyone thinking about buying an EVINRUDE E-TEC motor.
I owned a 150hp E-TEC for three years. In three years and 95 total hours this motor had four power head failures. In the end the regional Evinrude factory rep blamed the boat, prop, and the ever popular ''bad gas''. I guess Evinrude is not capable of admitting to building a lemon. I was told I was out of warranty. I traded it for a Suzuki. I estimate it cost me 10 grand to own an Evinrude E-TEC for three years. In 2006 I bought a new RANGER REATA with the then new 150 E-TEC it ran 8hrs and a few minutes and failed the first time. By the time this motor ran 40hrs it had failed three times. I demanded a new motor so much for that. With the fourth power head they programed it for XD50 oil but told me to continue to use XD100 oil, 43 dollars a gallon, raising the price of my fuel by almost a dollar a gallon at a time when the price of gas was over four dollars a gallon. The slicker oil at a higher rate made the fourth power head last 55 hrs and got EVINRUDE out from under the warranty. This motor always had a miss at mid range and no mater how I ran it could not get more than 3MPG it averaged 2 to 2.5MPG. So much for fuel economy, EVINRUDE. As I stated earlier I had to trade for a different motor. Without a warranty I can't afford a motor that averages 20 some hours to the power head failure. I've had the Suzuki for a year now and have 53hrs on it. I get almost 7MPG. More than double the time on the water per gallon of fuel, 'bad boat Gary??? factory rep'. Different props and gas is not an issue with this motor. In closing don't buy EVINRUDE!!! You might get a good one but if you get a lemon EVINRUDE won't make it right.

What was the model # on this mtr ?

Boobie said:

What was the model # on this mtr ?

Click to expand...

R150dpxscr

If the Evinrude's Rep name was Gary and it is the same Gary I'm thinking of I used to work with him at the same company. Pretty smart guy. Actually the E-tec is the only mtr I would buy today if I was in the market for a new one and I've worked on quit a few of them. As long as your happy with your Suzie stick with it. According to the model # you posted it looks like an '08 mtr and you stated in your post you bought it in '06. ?????

I agree Gary's a smart guy. When he got done with me I had no chose but get rid of E-TEC. Everything was bad but the E-TEC. I guess he forgot that in the summer of 2006 he set this boat up and personally put the raker prop on. The prop that in 2009 is the wrong prop for this boat. He also said the gas was bad, he smelled it, didn't know you could tell octane by smell. Every drop of fuel that went in this motor was treated with marine formula sta-bil. Someone needs to tell sta-bil that their product is not capable of keeping premium fuel above 85 octane for a little over a month. He definitely covered the bases for Evinrude.

Not to be smart ass but if somebody has been around outboards as long as Gary and I have been you can "tell by the smell " if the gas is bad. No you can't tell the octane rating. As far as Sta-bil goes use only the new Blue stuff for marine use with all the ethanol the fuel now has. Stay away from the Red stuff. Personally, I've used Sta-bil for a long time but the next time I get an additive I'm going with Startron. Have heard and read a lot of good things about it.

The model # I gave you I took from the Evinrude engine history report that I was given the last time rude failed. I looked up the bill or sale from 06 the correct model # is E150DPXSUC. I switched to the blue stuff as soon as it hit the market. This E-TEC was one of the first 150's shipped to RANGER. Rigged and sold by RANGER. I waited over a year for this combination. I was convinced this was the best boat and motor available. Stale gas I can smell from across the garage. I siphon gas out of the boat for my lawn mower I had two mechanics smell it. They both said ya gas so what. Didn't smell bad to them. No more about gas. Their is one thing I've learned in almost 30 years of boat ownership and that is when a boat owner walks into a marina to get something worked on you are lying you don't know what your talking about and you want something for nothing and at $90 an hr this is BS. I think E-TEC may be one of the best motors out their I sure would have liked to have had a good one. Now here's a few facts to show you what I mean. On the last power head 55hrs 25min total running time it used 312 gal of gas. Suzie as you called it, 53.1hrs has used 155 gal of gas. Now this is on the same boat used in the same way on the same water. I'm no master mechanic but aside from the fact this motor failed four times in 95 total hrs this alone says theirs something bad wrong with rude.

All I can say to you as long as you're happy that's great and I've been in situations with customers like you and I understand how you feel. Stick with your Suzie. I'm old school and still like my Evinrudes.

Could be one of those guys . Run wide open every ware he goes with the trim up ..pulling 6000rpm.. .. hard to belive a evenrude won't last more then 50 hours without user error sum ware .. ? Just a thought

tugpilot this is a 7 year old post you may want to find something more current.

Lol. Sure is .. aparently..people are still reading it ... I have several evenrude outboards one of which is a 1969 model still running strong ..handed down through family ..care and maintenance. .not one rebuild .. the new etech is a fairly solid engine. With fairly good customer service .. my opinion .. how many power heads can one person go through before sum bidy says.... hey it may be user error? I don't understand dissing a product when it probley isn't the products fault ..??? Enough said ? Old post or not ..it comes up when serching evenrude etech engines ... that's how I ended up here...at this blog... thanks ...