How are the Eco Techs holding up

[BUSHHOG85]

Naw no need for that it's just about Eco tucks

[chuckitt@earthlink.net]

Whitebear, please don't move this thread to high performance just because a few racers posted.
Thanks, Chuck

[HuntingBigun]

Is this thread ready to go live in the High Performance Topic?

NA why you want to do that just because couple racers posted no biggie fun reading plus I want to see the pictures when Bubba and Terry race Bubba put up his hair not sure what Terry can put up, he got no hair maybe pink slip we are all are being nice and so polite

[DynaMarine]

Pink slip LOL...good one bigun

[dak10]

Well at least when I stop my eco I aint gotta crank it for 5 min or let it cool down or check the gas and FILL the oil now I think thats is some funny sh€t there
im going on 300 plus hours and all is working great its been 2 years of riding trouble free

dont care what people think about eco tech

[ptr34]

http://youtu.be/4nhI8GlbtEc
529/503 @15 psi

[HuntingBigun]

Here ya go pretty cool for a turd

[ptr34]

Thanks wayne.

[Alpha Fab]

Thanks man! A true testament to what this little engine is capable of!

-AFI

[chuckitt@earthlink.net]

Hey Terry, are you going to have the raceboat ready.
Thanks, Chuck

[ptr34]

No sir just didnt get it perfect and ran out of time

[dak10]

Well in February I will have 4 years on my eco and it still goes as good as the day I built it
Top off the gas and go
To sweet
Thanks Chuck for all the help

[dak10]

Still going in my eco tech had some issues but none of them has to do with the engine
All drive unit problems but think I got it finger it out now
Still gas and go. Charge the oil

[OneBFC]

Mine is still humming along. Makes plenty of power

1 starter
1 radiator (fob damage)

[CarMotorBarge]

I had to pull one to the ramp 2 years ago.

[Prototype]

I had to pull one to the ramp 2 years ago.

We all Help and try not to gloat!

From what I've seen a real built eco could replace the need for avgas or 110 and button the needed horsepower if Propped Correctly.

DAK? 3 year old post for what reason to bring alive again? Who Hasn't pulled in a ac or sbc or bbc or gpu in need?
One eco needed a tow vs how many strokers or big blocks or ac or gpu's over the decades, especially when some of them strokers are way southern internals, Chink -Chink Built stroker internals?

[chuckitt@earthlink.net]

Ecotec Design engines are in almost all new Vehicles. They are too efficient to dismiss them as airboat power plants. Even the new V8's are Ecotec design. Dependability?, the Cadillac 3.6L Twin Turbo, stock engine with larger turbos produced 600 HP and raced the last 4 years in the Pirelli World Championship. They won all 4 years and did not blow any engines. Cadillac had proved their engine was the best and decided to not sponsor any racing for 2018. 2 Teams decided to run this engine in DPI Class at the Rolex 24 hour at Daytona a couple of weeks ago and WON, setting a new record of 808 laps. What is not to like in this Ecotec engine. This engine can be bought as a GM crate engine and the standalone ECM and Wiring Harness can be purchased too.
I was hoping someone would step-up and learn how to set-up these engines before I retired. Once you read into the wiring diagrams, you see how easy it is. If someone is interested, give me a call and I will walk you threw it. 352-330-1015.

For the airboaters that have to have an opposed engine, in the next year or two, Ford will be putting an Opposed Engine in some of their Trucks. Look for it.
Thanks, Chuck

[Duece]

Yeah but isn't racing completely different from airboating? Doesn't attaching that prop to the motor change things drastically, even if it is coupled with a gearbox? These are questions btw, NOT comments. I'm asking b/c these little ba$tards have really piqued my interested over the past few years, but there's the occasional horror story that makes you say "nah", I'll pass.

Duece

[OneBFC]

Wise to be cautious when looking into anything new of course.

Though, we are getting good and well past these engines being new now imo.

As to some poor results people have had, I believe those all trace back to either an improper or poor tune due to being slaves to one specific tuner at the time or a non factory built engine.

Use of stock, from the factory, turbo engine is important for reliability in my opinion. You can upgrade the internal parts of the factory turbo engines if you wish, but, adding a turbo to a pieced together engine setup will be very hit or miss on longevity.

I have owned nothing but forced induction engines in every vehicle I have owned for the last 30 or so years. Cars, trucks, off shore boats, flats boats, construction equipment and, of course, Airboats. Every platform that I added forced induction to that didn't already come with it from the manufacturer always made great power, but was always less reliable. I have split in half many an old 90s era Ford 5.0 blocks once we started putting turbos to them. The 2.6 Mitsubishi small truck motors that were used in the Starion and Conquest on the other hand would happily gobble up boost on stock engines and run for years at 30 psi of boost on pump gas.

Anyway, both of the above listed problems are entirely avoidable today, as Chuck pointed out.

If you want a "turn key" setup, buy a GM LTG and run the harness they offer for it as well. This will net you around 300hp reliably and hassle free. No mods needed beyond tuning.

There are other engines and electronics options you can choose, but they are not for people that don't enjoy working with electronics and software. The other routes net a little more power on pure stock parts, that's it.

Once you opt to upgrade rods and pistons and add a better turbo, well, 400 to 500 hp is not an exaggeration of the power you can achieve and still maintain reliable operation.

Should you ever run into a problem down the road, well, a used engine is often less than $1,000.00 these days. The upgraded rods and pistons come out to less than $1000 total too on top of that. So, $2000 and your back to whole again.

The turbos are not a weak or failure point.

Fuel economy on e10 93 pump gas will be in the 5 to 7 miles per gallon range if you drive like a normal person and don't have hull problems and a boat weight under 2000 lbs.

The last ecotec I helped get on the water recently spins a 3 blade NGR on nearly the 3 mark with a 2.5 ratio and engine rpm at around 5100 to 5200 on trailer with a zero knock conservative factory boost level tune. That one didn't go the LTG route and had some electronics and tune challenges due to that, but, it worked out in the end.

If you want to be in the 300 to 400+hp range, really, what's not to love?

Alright...off my little internet forum soap box.

[chuckitt@earthlink.net]

Hey Duece, racing is not different from airboating. These racers will be turning their engines up to 9000 rpm's and doing it for hours. Their engines live. Most CM airboat engines will die before 7000 rpm's. AC engines want live long past 3500 rpm's.

[Duece]

See you learn something new everyday!

Duece

[br,lc,LA]

Long story short, my predicament is my fault, not an issue with the motors.

Got rain water into the intake tract during a bad down poor and cut rings on one motor.

Believe got moisture into the MAF wiring plug and it shorted the ECU so bad ECU fried the second motor.

OneBFC is correct as I had my new tuner take a look at some datalogs from said "one specific tuner" and things were not happy in his words... basically dumping fuel into the cylinders and the overall tune was not happy. But said "one specifc tuner" was the only option when all this started with Chuck.

Starting over with new wiring and new ECU and a different tuner probably the top in the business for the 1.4L, not said "one specific" and I must say Chuck and Dak10 did a decent job with documentation and I could easily rebuild everything. I have the engine manuals also so I can rebuild these toys.

As OneBFC said... if you are into wiring and you can understand GM diagrams with some logic of how motors and controls work this is an easy project for most.

There are 1.4Ls running 175-190whp (240-225 crank) on stock parts(on 93), upgrade the turbo and you can get 200-230whp (240-275 crank). I do not plan to go to a big wheel turbo as it moves peak power out to far... currently 300+whp (350 crank) on large borg warner turbos

Plan ultimately is to make 250+ crank hp with stock parts and burn corn (E85) over this next year from a 1.4L.

OneBFC is correct... GM sells the LTG for aftermarket now which simplifies several things except for front motor mounts but there are a few on here to help with that design step... still need a tuner to get rid of the VSS signal requirements but that easily done also.

I will add with the right turbo sized (smaller wheels) for the motor you can make peak power at 5000rpm... so no need to live in the high rpm world.

[PistolPete]

I have JB old boat still runs like a champ and I love it. My son wants to get rid of his 500 Cadillac boat after driving this setup.