*Update 2020: the engine has been running trouble-free since 2013. Hours/year in the low range. Starter relay changed this year, apart from that only routine maintenance. *
Suddenly we own a boat! It´s a Finnish Bella 512 Excel for 2006, very well maintained – looks practically new.
Along with it came an Evinrude e-tec 90, which is quite a powerful engine for a boat this size. It does about 36 knots with its current prop, and speed at sea is quite intoxicating.
The hull is good, it has sufficient V-shape to run quite softly on the waves, about 22 degrees at the stern. The boat has a very solid, grown-up feel, and it can certainly tackle choppy seas, but I miss the more agile, intelligent approach embodied by the Musling 430 and its deep V-hull and water ballast. But that´s a different kind of boat! My son has one.
The e-tec was filled with XD50 oil, which is really a standard TC-3W spec oil; you don´t have to stick with Evinrude´s. This oil is semisynthetic, and you match it to a setting in the e-tec brain: when running on XD50, it adds more oil to the engine than if you run … XD100! This is Evinrude´s fully synthetic oil, and if you run the engine on the XD100 setting, only that oil will do, since the amount of oil is reduced, giving reduced smoke – and oil consumption… I have switched to XD100 to get the benefits of a cleaner burning oil, then maybe I will set it to the XD100-setting. Apparently you can go from XD50 to XD100, but not back, once the engine has “got used to” the better oil.
I have been running XD100 for some years now ( 2018 ) and that works fine; the setting is still XD50, so it smells more than it needs to.
Then there is the prop. The boat came with a Ballistic 13 3/8 by 19″ gorgeous steel propeller. However, it is too big, so I have ordered an aluminium 13 3/4 by 15″ Quicksilver/Mercury that should take max revs from the current 4600 to over 5000, and make it run with lower stress at cruise and when laden.
After a bit of to and fro, trying out a 17″ Evinrude, the engine now mounts a QA2208X from Quicksilver, with a 15″ pitch. The hub kit to go with it is called 835266Q1 1, and fits the Evinrude V4-gearcase which seems to have had a long life, starting out way back, and now sitting on the e-tec 90, among others.
Revs have risen to at least 5500rpm. OK, so it´s on the light side, but that means the engine runs more freely and accelerates harder, so I´ll stick with it. I tend to change propellers a lot …
schoutbynacht 
Hi, I just bought exact same boat also with Etec 90 hp. I want to ask you if you have a portable 25 litres fueltank on your boat? I am planning to find a bigger fueltank than the one I have (portable 25 litres). But I am not sure how much bigger than 25 ltrs can be stored below the seating in the back. The space capacity is limited, and I am wondering which size can be stored inside (biggest possible fueltank).
I would still prefer a portable one. Unfortunale I have no idea where to ask, or how to find out.
Hei Per,
When we bought the boat it had two portable 25 litre tanks in it! For our use, that´s OK. It means I have to dive in below the aft bench and swap the fuel line over, and it´s not my favourite job, but it works, and you can save some money buying fuel from onshore pumps. You could make life easier by installing a fuel valve and so on. Essentially, one portable tank fits behind the other, so you can only access one at a time. Great boat, but mine leaks a bit (rainwater). I love the way it can handle rough seas, and the instant acceleration of the e-tec. I am running a 15″ propeller.