While I've had no leaks from the intake, and I wouldn't expect that the tilt angle is sufficient to cause oil from the crankcase to run out (but it might be), I vaguely recall that this has happened to others. It's normal for some oil to pool at the bottom of the crankcase, and it will run out if the motor is tipped forward far enough. Note that the E-tec computer runs the engine rich on oil for the first period (hour or two or three?) of use when brand new, so that there will be an initial excess of oil during this time.
The Evinrude website has an E-tec forum, which would be a good place to ask the same question.
I did however have oil leak into the transom well from what I recently determined to be the cap seal on the oil reservoir. Happened over a period of several days, and was not a lot of volume. It happened when new and topped up, and when the engine was tilted up and tipped over to the port side. It didn't seem to happen when I tipped the engine to starboard, but the oil level was lower by that time, so it might have.
How many times has this happened? Are you sure that the intake is the source of the oil? – it does leak from the reservoir down into this area and would appear to be coming from the there. Small pieces of paper towel is one way to track the leak back to its source if you get it soon enough before it spreads too much.
This fall I topped the reservoir to a level below which I thought it would reach the cap when tilted up, but that level was lower than I thought (it brought it just past the cap). I had taken the cap and its parts apart just prior to that and thoroughly cleaned and dried them - which allowed me to say in the end with certainly that the leak was at the cap. The tank itself was not split.
While not topping the oil tank up all the way is a solution to the problem, the cap should not leak when you want to top it up, and I will be pressing for a fix for it at the three-year maintenance check this spring.
- Brian.
