Article: Coming This Month: The Full Story of the Evinrude E-Tec

[powerabout]

We know... you are just waiting for the 400hp 4.5ltr Etec v8 announcement.

[WannabeRacer]

We are still waiting!!!

[seahorse]

Wow!

I would love to see an interview the East German engineers who worked on the Ficht 2-stroke direct injection system that was going into the next generation Trabant, or get a little background on OMC's decision not to use the Orbital system...

The original design had gasoline pumped in a circle and a valve slammed shut which caused an instantaneous peak pressure which opened a spring loaded nozzle check valve to introduce a fuel spray into the combustion chamber. FICHT in Germany experimented with both mechanical and electrical action to pressurize and atomize the fuel. When OMC bought the company, their engineers perfected and patented the injector assembly and made it computer controlled for better accuracy.

The Orbital system was complicated and expensive to produce compared to other designs - 6 direct injectors, 6 fuel injectors, an air compressor, tracking valve to keep a constant differential pressure, 2 or 3 electric fuel pumps, all the plumbing fittings and hoses , etc.

In addition any company licensing it had to pay Orbital royalties for each motor. That added to the engine expense and was the biggest reason for purchasing FICHT and not signing on to the Orbital system. Another reason, lesser in importance, was why have the same system as their competitor, even though I understand that OMC obtained the Orbital license before Mercury did. What would have differentiated the two engines from the competing manufacturers?

Also part of the licensing agreement is that all parties share in the development of the engine. That means OMC and Merc would be sharing ideas, engineering, and improvements, just as OMC had to do when they licensed the Wankel rotary engine from Curtiss Wright. Mazda, Suzuki, Sachs, and OMC had to share all data between the companies, but in their case, none were competition.

[FMP]

Thank you for sharing that.

[Markus]

The original design had gasoline pumped in a circle and a valve slammed shut which caused an instantaneous peak pressure which opened a spring loaded nozzle check valve to introduce a fuel spray into the combustion chamber. FICHT in Germany experimented with both mechanical and electrical action to pressurize and atomize the fuel. When OMC bought the company, their engineers perfected and patented the injector assembly and made it computer controlled for better accuracy.

The Orbital system was complicated and expensive to produce compared to other designs - 6 direct injectors, 6 fuel injectors, an air compressor, tracking valve to keep a constant differential pressure, 2 or 3 electric fuel pumps, all the plumbing fittings and hoses , etc.

In addition any company licensing it had to pay Orbital royalties for each motor. That added to the engine expense and was the biggest reason for purchasing FICHT and not signing on to the Orbital system. Another reason, lesser in importance, was why have the same system as their competitor, even though I understand that OMC obtained the Orbital license before Mercury did. What would have differentiated the two engines from the competing manufacturers?

Also part of the licensing agreement is that all parties share in the development of the engine. That means OMC and Merc would be sharing ideas, engineering, and improvements, just as OMC had to do when they licensed the Wankel rotary engine from Curtiss Wright. Mazda, Suzuki, Sachs, and OMC had to share all data between the companies, but in their case, none were competition.

Thank you for the additional background.

In the end, it was the lack of cash flow resulting from pulling FICHT from the market until the problems had been sorted out that led to OMC's bankruptcy.

In hindsight, staying with Orbital would probably have been the right thing to do, as OMC was ahead of Mercury with the adoption of that technology.

[seahorse]

Poor management plagued OMC ever since Charlie Strang left. The corporation suffered even before FICHT came out. It took George Soros' corporate raider group to plunder the retirement fund and then bankrupt the company the day before being indicted by the French government for irregularities in dealings with the French banking system. Watch the movie WALL STREET with Michael Douglas and what he was doing to the airline company he bought.

[Scream And Fly]

Well everybody, I know it's very long overdue, but this article will be published tomorrow night. Usually I am very timely with feature content, but this was a very unique undertaking for me.

When I first had the idea to present a detailed insight into the E-TEC and its beginnings, I had never imagined how deep this would go. I thought I knew a lot about the E-TEC, but I ended up learning a great deal through this experience. And so, the more I became involved in this project, the more interesting it became for me, but also, the more I realized that I needed to widen the scope of my feature article to tell a complete story. And that thought process repeated itself over and over, and I felt it was better to introduce this late, than to have it anything less than comprehensive, yet interesting.

I really think this will be interesting to everybody, not just Evinrude/OMC enthusiasts. It's a great story and it gave me a far greater understanding of exactly what the E-TEC is.

I invaded my vault of all of the media materials I've amassed over the last 15+ years. I save everything from every show and event, and yes, I really like those Evinrude fishing lures!

I really appreciate your patience while this fell behind schedule multiple times. I hope it will be worth the delays.

Greg

[powerabout]

Merc were still selling in the front injection after 2000 so there was some margin not to go to DFI straight away.
Just imagine a OMC kit for v6 conventional injection...