Which would you buy? Merc. optimax or Evin. etech?

[Tall-tailer]

Having a hard time deciding between the Mercury 150 optimax and the 150 Evinrude Etec. does any one have any experience with either of these motors? I would be putting the motor on a heavy 17 foot sled, configured with a jet pump.

Thanks

[rola76]

A buddy of mine ran the 150 E-Tec and it'd been in the shop, I wanna say, five times within the first few months!! Long story short...the Evinrude went back and he swapped it for a Honda!

Considering Mercs reliability I'd stick with that for your powerplant...can't go wrong!!:D

[KingFisher85]

Id go with the e-tec

[olybirds]

lots and lots of hype about the E-Tec's.. But look at a comparison to the Opti and its almost a dead heat.

I'd go with the proven track record on the opti. Seems there are a lot of E-Tecs out there that have issues out of the box..

[trap50]

Was all set to replace my older Evinrude with a e-tech. The dealer actually talked me out of it. Sold me a yamaha for the same $$

[ReadyPro1]

Both have been in production for several years and the optimax around 10 years or so. One of the biggest factors is service after the sale go with the one you know. The cost of parts and service can add up so check into your local dealers then make a decison based on that :twocents:

[phamf]

From the infomercials on tv, the Evinrude E-Tec is the best thing out there since slice bread. Hardly cost anything for maintenance and is supposed to last forever. If you look at the video in the commercial, it will sink a yamaha.
The commercial almost had me want to buy one.

[HOOKUP]

Optimax hands down!

[the apprentice]

the infomecial was lame you could tell they were running the e-tec all out and the yami about half throttle thats my:twocents: buy the opti-max

[ICHTHYDEMON]

If I HAD to choose between those two (UGH!) I'd pick the E-tec.

If I had a third choice,it would be a Vmax from Yamaha.

[retaliate]

Don't know much about e-tec, I saw their infomercial, & it was laughable, first off, this is not some new technology, it's a 2 stroke, second they say you'll need 7 services for a 4 stroke motor in 3 years, so far in 7 years I have had 0 services on my 4 stroke merc 115(Yamaha power head) just change the oil, filter, & plugs every year...weather it's needed or not, I changed the Water pump after 4 years, & eventually will need a valve adjust...thats it. Now you can't beat the power to weight ratio of a 2 stroke, but as you should know by now, in order to get top performance you need to use their expensive synthetic 2 stroke oil at $30 a gallon or more, & even tho it dosn't smoke as much as petrolium based 2 stroke oil, the smell is tough to take, so unless you need the power to weight advantage of a 2 stroke motor, I would go with a 4 stroke.:twocents:

[Moldy45]

sounds like you want a 2 stroke.
I have a 150 Johnson and I love everything about it but the smoke.
My buddy runs a 22' c-dory with a 90 hp etec and it has been nothing but awesome so far and I can honestly say i cant smell or see much if any smoke from the thing.
never ran a opti so can't compare

[Waterfish]

I just put an new 90 hp E-tec on my boat, and I would recommend an E-tec for any application EXCEPT a jet pump. Call Oregon City Marina; they are an E-tec dealer. I can't remember the technical reasons, but they told me that E-tecs aren't designed to work with a jet pump.

[Seefood Man]

Save yourself the trouble and just go with the Optimax.

[HOGTIDE]

I have spoken with a local boat rescue owner/operator who has his entire fleet fitted with twin E-Tecs. He said he purchased them because of the special deal he got when he added a little promo on the sides. However, at the time I spoke with him, 5 of the 8 bigger v-6 blocks had blown up or given up on him around 250-300 hours of use. He was replacing them 2 at a time with new Yamahas as he could afford it.

According to this man, the new E-Tc was simply the old FICHT technology that caused OMC to go broke. It had been repackaged and re-chipped to prevent power heads from blowing up...but it is still happening.

I had this conversation about a year ago when I was considering a new boat & motor. His statements were rather convincing as I spoke to him aboard his bright yellow tow boat with 2 large E-Tecs mounted on the transom.

He said he thought the info-mercials looked cool too...and ten just kinda shook his head.

I recently bought a new 200 Yamaha HPDI and love it. I have owned 8 Mercurys prior to this motor. I would not hesitate to buy a Merc again, too if it was a matchup with a boat brand and dealer.

[Kevin Turner]

I've heard good & bad about them all.

I like the OptiMax. KT