Blew up my Yamaha today

[Bushwacker]

Originally Posted by htillman

. . . The mechanic told me I was fortunate I did not ruin the engine by starving it of oil. I never got an oil alarm, only fuel alarms

E-TEC's have a sensor that detects pressure pulses from the oil pump. If it doesn't sense any pulses, they'll set a "No Oil" alarm and go into safe mode, so it's pretty hard to kill one due to oil problems. Plus if you run full synthetic XD-100 oil, you can get by with about 1/3 less oil flow.

Fuel starvation is a whole other issue however and has killed many motors of all brands! I suspect that overpowered boats are the most susceptible to this problem. A slight restriction that causes motor to run lean but almost reach full power is probably worse than a severe restriction like you had that's more obvious!