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What's Up with E-TEC?:
E-TEC Cost of Ownership

One of Evinrude's claims is that E-TECs cost less to operate than 4-strokes. 2-stroke critics say "No way".

The key to Evinrude's claim is their service interval of 3 years / 300 hours between dealer service.

The basis of the nay-sayers vote is the cost of purchasing 2-stroke oil, and disbelief over a 300 hour service interval.

To get a better feel for the true cost of operation, we decided to compare our E-TEC 90 to the Yamaha F90. Here's the process we used:

We reviewed the service schedules in the F90 owners manuals, then called Yamaha dealers in the San Diego area for quotes on dealer service at the recommended interval of 10 hours, 100 hours, 500 hours and 1000 hours.
We did the same for the E-TEC, based on the 300 hour / 3 year interval.
We then calculated the total costs for service and oil consumpion over a 10 year period for both. We made these assumptions:
100 hours of use per year (our current activity level)
E-TEC oil consumption rate of 1 gallon of Evinrude XD-50 (partial synthetic) oil every 30 hours. This is our current rate in Toy Boat 2
We assumed we would not have to start adding oil to the Yamaha between oil changes until the 4th year of use. After that, we added 1 quart of oil per year.
For the Yamaha 500 hour service, which calls for a valve clearance check, we did not add in the cost for shims.
  One of the dealers we spoke to commented that "we do the check, but we've never had to adjust one yet", so to be conservative, we took the comment at face value. We simply added in the 1 hour of labor they would charge to do the inspection.
For you financial types, we did not attempt to apply factors for inflation or rising oil prices, sales tax, or unanticipated repairs, since they would apply equally to both engines.
We ran the numbers through a spreadsheet which contained entries with our best estimates of oil consumption and service costs over 10 years.

We re-ran the numbers several times, making some different assumptions about how service would be done (see summaries below).
If we didn't screw up a formula or two, the numbers come out similar to the ones shown in the table at the bottom of the page. The table shown is only for one case: following factory-recommended service intervals combined with having the dealer do all the work.
Remember, these numbers should be used only as a tool for comparing the cost trends for each motor to each other. They are not exact numbers.

Pricing of labor rates, parts and supplies are variable. We may also have left off small consumable items like gasket compound and small seals (which your dealer service department may charge you for, but would not significantly affect the cost trends).
Here are summaries of the results:
Who Does the Work Service Schedules
Evinrude E-TEC 90: 3 years / 300 hours

Yamaha F90: 10 hours, every 100 hours; special service @500 hours & 1000 hours 		Evinrude E-TEC 90: Every 100 hours

Yamaha F90: 10 hours, every 100 hours; special service @500 hours & 1000 hours
Dealer performs all service The E-TEC costs about $3,000 less to operate over 10 years than the F90 ($25 / month less).

The additional dealer services required for the F90, plus the extra cost of the 500 and 1000 hour services far outweigh the cost of the 2-stroke oil consumed by the E-TEC.		 The E-TEC comes out about $625 more than the Yamaha after 10 years, or about $5.21 / month more. Given the inherent inaccuracies in a calculation like this, we would say that it's basically a wash.

Considering how expensive 2-stroke oil is, you might be tempted to assume that the E-TEC would cost a lot more to operate. However, the additional cost of the 10 hour, 500 hour and 1000 hour dealer services are about the same as the added price of buying 2-stroke oil for the E-TEC.
Owner performs all service The E-TEC costs about $150 less over 10 years, or about $1.25 month. Given the inherent inaccuracies in a calculation like this, we would say that it's a wash.

The additional supplies and parts required for the F90's more frequent service interval, plus the parts required for the 1000 hour service event cost about as much as the additional oil costs for the E-TEC.

The E-TEC comes out about $1,000 more than the Yamaha after 10 years, or about $8.33 / month more.

That's because with both engines being serviced at the same intervals, the cost of the 2-stroke oil for the E-TEC outweighs the additional material costs of the F90 services.

Owner performs all service except dealer performs 500 and 1000 hour service on F90

The E-TEC costs $1,300 less than the F90 over 10 years, or about $10.75 / month less.

The additional supplies and parts required for the F90's service, plus the more frequent service interval, plus the cost of the dealer service required for the 500 and 1000 hour service cost outweigh the additional oil costs for the E-TEC.

The Yamaha winds up costing about $125 more than the E-TEC over 10 years, or about $1.04 / month more. Given the inherent inaccuracies in a calculation like this, we would say that it's basically a wash.

The additional costs of the dealer service for the F90 500 hour and 1000 hours service cost the same as the extra oil the E-TEC would burn.

All of this is theoretical, of course. We've decided to keep a running service log on our E-TEC, and compare the real costs of operations to the estimated costs of maintaining a Yamaha F90 outboard. This will be set up as a new, separate column in the Table of Contents, starting next month.

Some interesting notes...
We've found that many of the early adopters of E-TECs have not been following BRP's recommendations of dealer service at 3 years / 300 hours. Rather, they've continued to service their motors at 100 hour intervals "just in case".

However, of the people we've spoken to who are doing this, not one has seen any issues during their 100 hour interval service, So in reality, the 100 hour services were not needed, other than as a precaution. As mentioned several times in the past, we intend to follow the service schedule shown in the E-TEC 90's owners manual, and see what happens.

We're not overly concerned about running 300 hours without dealer service. Our mechanic has reported to us that he recently worked on a motor that was in commercial use for over 400 hours without service, and the motor was fine.

In our opinion, cost of operation will prove to be less for an E-TEC in the long run. While a lot of people will continue to have dealer service at least once a year, we think that practice will start to die off, as long as E-TECs continue to prove out the advertising claims. 

Example Comparison of Evinrude E-TEC and Yamaha F90 Operating and Service Costs

Factory-recommended Service Intervals, Dealer Does All service

E-TEC 90 HP Saltwater Edition   Yamaha F90
Year Item

Cost

Cumulative

 Year Item

Cost

Cumulative
1 3 gallons XD-50 oil

$69

   1 10 Hour service

$158

  
      100 hour service

$440

  
Year 1 total

$69

$69

 Year 1 TOTAL

$598

$598
2-5 13 gallons XD-50

$299

   2-5 200 hour service

$440

  
300 Hour service

$490

   300 hour service

$440

  
      400 hour service

$440

  
      500 hour service

$530

  
      2 quarts oil

$6

  
Year 5 total

$789

$858

 Year 5 total

$1,856

$2,454
6-10 17 gallons XD-50

$391

   6-10 600 hour service

$440

  
600 hour service

$490

   700 hour service

$440

  
900 hour service

$490

   800 hour service

$440

  
      900 hour service

$440

  
      1000 hour service

$750

  
      5 quarts of oil

$15

  
Year 10 total

$1,371

$2,229

 Year 10 total

$2,525

$4,979