I have been boatless for a while now and I am starting to look around. Some of them have the discontinued G2 motors from Evinrude. If you are running one, give me the scoop. First, are they noisy at cruise, do they smoke you out, are they hard to work on, do they troll well? How is the corrosion protection. Just any insight you might have. I'm an old guy so it will no doubt outlive me. If you own one and have an opinion you would like to share I'm all ears.
Evinrude G2 motors...need opinions
- Thread starter Halfhitch
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Try posting or doing a search on etecownersgroup.com Much more first hand experience there.
Mustang65fbk
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I don't have any personal experience with owning a boat that had ETEC motors on them but I do have some experience outside of that. First would be a buddy's boat that has twin ETEC's on it, which they're definitely a bit noisier and smell worse than my Yamaha F225. The other "experience" that I have with an ETEC is when I went out shrimping a few years ago in my old boat. There was a guy who had a Grady White with an ETEC on it that dropped his pots next to ours and then would drive off, check others, come back and so forth. My buddy and I were in my boat and we'd just basically chill where we dropped our pots or a drift a bit and then check them after a little while. You could hear and smell the guy with the GW and the ETEC on it from quite a good distance, and then when he pulled up a hundred to two hundred feet away, you could see and smell the smoke coming out of the ETEC, as well as hear it too. At the time, I had a 21' Arima with a Honda 130 hp 4 stroke on it, of which it was quiet and didn't smoke at all. Sometimes if I left the motor on and in neutral, I'd accidentally restart it because it sounded like the motor shut off. With the issues that the ETEC's have had over the years as well as them going out of business, not being worked on by other mechanics or shops, and just the sheer amount of different 4 stroke models out there... I'd honestly just pass on getting one. Unless you can get the boat for a steal of a deal, and/or then wanted to repower or something. They do have considerably more torque than the typical 4 stroke, but I honestly don't care about that, and I believe they still need the oil reservoirs to be filled with oil all the time. Modern 4 stroke motors imo are here to stay, unless they figure out something with maybe diesel outboards, hybrid power or even possibly electric powered outboards. I think there's a big reason why Evinrude was the last to have 2 strokes and then they stopped continuing making them. Again, these are just my opinions and are mostly from the outside looking in. As mentioned, I'm guessing looking on a different forum and/or a Google search is going to be a bit more productive as opposed to relying strictly on information from ETEC owners on GG, as I imagine there probably aren't a ton of them.
blynch
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Like most things it's a matter of what price discount you can get for taking on a less marketable component. If you're comparing them straight up to a late model Yamaha for the same money they're obviously going to look like a bad deal, but in the real world that's never the case, there will always be some discount.
I can say from experience that the G1s are generally pretty maligned on the message boards, but when you start digging deeper and focusing on reports from people that actually run them you'll find that there are an awful lot of people who are perfectly happy with the years of trouble free service they've gotten. My 2013 is going strong and in 4 years of operation I've never missed a moment of fishing with an engine issue. Like most I was aware going in that I'd be dealing with the 2-stroke pleasantries like the noise.
Whether the G2s are the same I can't really say; I've HEARD that they are more mechanically complicated (in a negative way) but then again that makes me just a another voice speaking on a engine I've never owned
I can say from experience that the G1s are generally pretty maligned on the message boards, but when you start digging deeper and focusing on reports from people that actually run them you'll find that there are an awful lot of people who are perfectly happy with the years of trouble free service they've gotten. My 2013 is going strong and in 4 years of operation I've never missed a moment of fishing with an engine issue. Like most I was aware going in that I'd be dealing with the 2-stroke pleasantries like the noise.
Whether the G2s are the same I can't really say; I've HEARD that they are more mechanically complicated (in a negative way) but then again that makes me just a another voice speaking on a engine I've never owned
I have a G1 friend has G2 never smell anything from these engines above post maybe they were using the wrong oil,oil is at $50 gallon adds about $1 to your cost per gallon on gas.they start very easy very few issues.G2 get fantastic fuel economy. When they were available most working boats had them because very little routine maintenance is needed..I have the dealer service mine every three years I believe the G2 is five years .I would get another .
I have a 2017 G2 300. In my opinion its a great single engine match up for my older wide body Grady White 25 Sailfish. Does"nt smoke like mentioned in above reply. Very happy with fuel econmy and performance. The biggest thing is to have a top notch tech who is still providing warrenty work and parts. Also keep up on scheduled maitenence.
Wild blue
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My old boat had a G2 250 on it, very little maintenance, lots of power, good fuel economy, I put 900 hrs on it and never had an issue, I chose to get rid of it before something happened as in my area the average life wasn’t often past 1200hrs for sporties, overall I liked it
It was louder than an 4 stroke and did have some exhaust smell but nothing like the old school 2 strokes. You do have to use the correct 2 stroke oil, but it is readily available
Good luck
It was louder than an 4 stroke and did have some exhaust smell but nothing like the old school 2 strokes. You do have to use the correct 2 stroke oil, but it is readily available
Good luck
Fishtales
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I'd stay away. Parts are becoming hard to obtain and it only gets worse over time.
That is something I've been wrestling with too. Since my last post here, i found 2 similar boats one with a 2015 300 yamaha 4.2 liter and another with twin 115 yamaha 4 strokes so it lessened my urge to go after those smokers.
Hey Half. I was in the market and came close to pulling the trigger on a Grady 282 with 2 newer G2 225s on the back with very low hours. The upside from my research is that they are great motors with low smoke, lots of power and fuel efficient. The only thing that prevented me from buying it was what Fishtales said and that is parts. I have gone on some Etec forums and spoken to shops and yeah BRP is saying they will cover motors but the issue is finding parts, specially the ECM. There is apparently a long line up of people waiting for these and you could be sitting in dry dock waiting for parts. You are starting to see extremely steep discounts on those motors now as people do not want to be stuck with them, so I guess if you want to take the risk then go for it. Motors are solid and run well but if you have a breakdown you could be waiting a long time.
Thanks Barbender, Looking at things from that perspective, it is entirely possible that a guy could just wind up with an expensive funny-shaped anchor. The fact that I don't have one and the possibility it could end up being a real hair-pulling outcome makes me think I should take notice of the hints to run for the hills and not become an owner with regrets. Appreciate the comments of everyone that stopped by.