"Billgran" wrote in message
...

"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.

snip
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


So to net it out, you would say that only the 150-175 models from
1997-1999 had reliability problems and those were related to
applications on heavy boats that were overpropped? If the fixes to the
earlier models did the job, why did they have to come out with the ram
stuff?

I am perfectly willing to admit I have no access to the statistics and
failure rates, so am asking these questions honestly in a spirit of
inquiry and interest in new technology. I am also still trying to
figure out how an Etec injector works. The Ficht used a metal rod driven
by an external solenoid. What is the difference in Etec? Got a patent
number or two?

del cecchi