"Jim and Becky" wrote in message
. ..
So, has the Ficht issue been resolved on brand new models?
If so what would be considered the most recent year that they are
considered
reliable?
What was the first year of Ficht?


FICHT history


The first production FICHT came out as a 20" shaft 150hp Johnson or Evinrude
in late 1996 and was targeted for the bass boat and sport boat models. It
worked as designed and had won the Popular Science innovation award.

In '98, the came out with the V4 90-115hp and the 175, along with extra long
shaft lengths for the offshore boats. In some applications, usually larger
boats that were over-propped, problems developed in the 150-175 series. The
then president of OMC David Jones said that about 20% had problems and had a
crash program to find out why and what to do about fixing it. According to
findings from consultants all over the world, hired by OMC, the abrasiveness
of soot buildup due to poor mid-range combustion scored the internal parts
of the motor. All the boating magazines had articles about it and what the
company was doing about it. This was published also in the Australian and
European press.

The factory then spent big bucks sending special teams around the country
installing cylinder head and software fixes to the thousands of engines that
were being used and made an upgrade kit available for dealer installation.
By then the 2000 models were ready for production and contained not only the
fixes, but a second generation design called FICHT Ram. The computers were
more powerful and now were complete engine management modules, including
charging system operation. The new motors worked well and ran even smoother
and more powerful than their predecessors. Boat tests and consumer tests
showed they were OK for all applications. For 2001 the big block V-6's were
redesigned to a larger 3.3L block for the 200-225-250hp models. The first
20-225 models came out in '99 with a 3.0L block and worked OK, they did not
have the application problems of the 150-175 series of that year, either did
the V4 90-115"s.

The 2001 Evinrude FICHTS finished a close 2nd to Yamaha in the J.D. Power's
survey that year and got an honorable mention (along with the Honda 130
4-stroke) the previous year.

OMC had money problems for quite a few years, had bad management decisions,
then had a corporate raider as an owner, then when the corporate raider was
indicted in a French banking scandal, he declared bankruptcy for the company
after raiding the pension fund, according to stories in the papers.

Bombardier bought the assets in the bankruptcy auction and re-introduced the
motors after building and up-to-date plant and improving quality control of
the vendors and manufacturers. The 2002 models and later are next to
bulletproof and are more economical to run than the equivalent 4-stroke
models. The total emissions are even less than the 4-strokes. The motors do
not run lean at power as someone posts over and over again. They use a
stratified charge at settings below 15% throttle opening, which on a
2-stroke is way less than 15% power output. Some aircraft engines are leaned
out up to 75% power output without problems, according to their operating
handbooks. My old IO-360 Continental 6 cylinder aircraft motor allowed, if I
remember correctly, 50 degrees lean of peak at cruise settings.

Since Bombardier took over, you do not hear about problems with the motors
on this or any other newsgroup. The bass boat crowd loves the HO series
200-225 models made specifically for those boats.

Like many things, the early problems in some situations were overblown and
rumors were spread mostly by those who were not familiar with the product
and what was being done. A lot of what you read and will read in this
newsgroup is from a small contingent of individuals who do not work on or
operate the motors, yet post lines and lines of hear-say, and even made up
stuff. Some even rant and rave and go off on a tangent since they do not
have the knowledge of what is happening.

FICHT and now its new generation called E-TECH are working well. The more
stringent future emission laws on the books and proposed, are easily met
today, where 4-strokes may need expensive catalytic converters, etc. to
comply. In the small motor categories, the carbureted 4-strokes cannot meet
2008 and later specs, but future E-TECH motors will. I watched a 3hp single
cylinder ETECH outboard rope start and run smoothly, and that was over a
year ago.

Bottom line is the 2000 and later 150-175hp FICHTS do not have problems with
the design, but like some things, the reputation from 6 years ago still gets
regurgitated.

Bill Grannis
service manager