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Ecotec I4 engine identification

P

PistolPete

Active member
looking at a used boat with ecotec engine current owner is second owner and he not sure if its a 2 or 2.4l how do i id the engine and model
 
Is it a 15 or 16ft Rivermaster hull ?

There was a guy named Dave who ran one years ago that lived North of Tampa in the Odessa area. He used to be on here posting but have not heard from him in years.
 
can likely tell from the prop to be honest. the 2.0 will swing way more prop.

or, give us a pic to look at.
 
Idk how to tell but the 2.0 is turbo or supercharged from the factory. 2.4 is naturally aspirated. Most likely it is a 2.4 if no forced induction on it
 
That is an LTG 2.0. I know the original owner. Was a fantastic boat when he had it. Can't speak for it's current condition or owner however.

It has a 76 inch Maximus prop if your not familiar and uses a 2.5 ratio (I believe) ballistic gear box.

Hope that helps. Definitely superior to any cobbled together 2.4 Turbo setup.
 
Thank you Russ I have been reading many of your post. You and several of the others have convinced me to go this route. I was thinking about building one but posted a wanted ad and this guy responded. Being impatient i am going to look at it saturday. He said just drives it 5 miles to where he hunts parks it walks into the woods hunts and comes home said he's not a joy rider which I will be.

Thanks Again
Pete
 
It was setup originally as a 100% stock engine, including catalytic converter. It should make around 275hp like that.

There is a lot of room for power growth. The LTG is more sensitive to poor tunes so it's best to upgrade the rods and pistons if you start asking for more than 300hp or so. They have higher static compression ratio than the other 2.0 ecotecs and a smaller turbo.

That all provides a very strong low rpm torque capability however so they are typically quite snappy.

I have seen stock turbo LTG on e85 produce 500 lbft of torque at 2500rpm...

Good luck, hope you like the boat and it's it good shape.
 
Well I was meet seller saturday morning But I am back to square one the seller called me late friday evening said he changed his mind now he dosen't want to sell the boat. I had gotten the cash at the bank and was excited to get the boat if everything checked out. With that said I guess i should just build mine own boat. I saw chuck use to sell a ecotec package is there someone else selling a similar packages in florida.
 
GM has a standalone harness for one of the Ecotec Motors I can't recall which one. Maybe Chuck can at least point you to his source of motors.
 
GM makes a standalone harness for the LTG I believe jegs and summit sales it and also pace performance. I'm running a 2.0 LHU like Russ but I'm running on a 2010 lnf harness and ecm I got my harness from cbm Motorsports. So far I have a little over 170 hours on it with no issues very happy with the power and fuel economy.
 
If you have any wiring experience you can go to the website below and for $20 you can get the wiring info you need to build your own harness, very simple when you get down to it. Both LHU (start with a 2011-2013 Buick Regal Manual Trans) and LTG (start with 2014 or newer Buick Regal Manual Trans) can be wired up very easily on an E39A ECM, or buy the stock LTG standalone. You can use HP or EFILive if you want to tune it yourself.

https://www.acdelcotds.com/acdelco/action/home

Jerry Kenny at Bad News Racing out of West Palm Beach handled my tuning on the 1.4L after I canned the Trifecta poo... Vince did the first few Chuck built but became unfriendly to work with after some time and his tunes were canned, locked, etc... had to pay to make changes. Jerry is very open and will work with your needs... one time pay and infinite tuning.

I have since stated over, rewired my own 1.4L after I had some wiring faults. Fun little boat. I will be working toward a 500+HP LHU over the next year and will start wiring in the next few months or so.
 
I had a buddy that was a mechanic for a few years wire mine. I had a 2013 LHU got all the wiring out of the bone yard. He had it running in no time. But it kept going into limp mode at a certain torque limit. After lots of research and time we find out that 2013 is the only year they used the E39A ecm on the LHU the next year they went to the LTG with the E39A ecm. So long story short we put in a few months and a lot of money and could never get past the limp mode. Had a professional tuner helping us as well using HP tuners. So I got sick of it and bought the harness and ecm from CBM the LNF ecm is simpler easier to tune and more tuning information out there as well. If your going to build your own harness I really recommend getting a 2011 Buick regal harness and the ecm it's a E39 not the E39A.
 
I have been told there is only a few tuners than can handle the E39A also... so I wont disagree if you can wire it for the standard E39. Also I have had to mimic speed input into the ECM on my LUV... basically taking the crank trigger signal and sending it through a signal adjuster (Dakota Digital SGI-5E) and back to the ECM for the VSS signal... the computer will limit TQ and RPM without VSS Signal because it thinks the car is in neutral.
 
use a 2011 regal harness with an LHU or use a GM LTG harness.

All other options will land you in either expensive tuner territory or A**hole tuner territory with limited control over your tune.

I typically recommend people go the LTG route with a GM harness to save headache and ensure a running rig.

Power difference between these variations is minimal on stock turbo.

Save yourself headache and go the LTG + GM harness route. That route will get you the E92 ECU which was until very recently GM's top of the line ECU.

Good luck with your search or build!
 
Well the seller said he was loosing to much money on what he told he would sell it to me for so he backed out of the deal. I sat on it a couple of days then sweetened the offer he took the offer. Went to check it out today the boats in great shape & a sweet setup needless to say its in my garage now.

My son has a 13.6 cotton mouth with cad 500 dd he thinks this boat something else. I know I will be helping him shortly build one.

Thanks guys for all the info.
 
I have not seen much talk about AFI 2.4L high performance engines have they had a problems on airboats. Which gear boxes bolt up direct to them. I understand there a different bolt pattern is that correct. I hear the Ox Box is the quietest of the gear boxes are they now making direct bolt up to 2.0l I know Russ has one i thought it was a prototype.
 
Unfortunately I have to recommend to stay well clear of AFI. This forum is a bit restrictive of negative company posts so I can't elaborate.

I do use an Ox Drive, but, it does use an adapter plate. Ox doesn't make a direct fit for ecotec. It's a simple 1 inch aluminum plate, not complicated.

Direct fit is Ballistic by Dynamarine.

The Ox has the lowest gear lash (exactly zero) and results in the quietest operation on the ecotec engines.

Ballistic has very small lash and will be quiet while running and have a little bit of noise at idle and throttle tip in.

The noise is nothing but that, noise. it has no bearing on performance. In fact, a loose box will rob less power.

That said, a very loose box like a rotator will be extremely loud on an ecotec and make for very annoying experience.

Glad you got the boat. Good luck with it!
 
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