Your thoughts on the FICHT for a stock fish motor

[pcrussell50]

Been down in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico for most of July. My FIL is a huge blue water fisherman (Marlin, sailfish, Dorado, tuna, that sort of thing). He has a center console walk-around 23 Striper with 225 FICHT, from 2000 or so.

Anyway the other day, he had his daughter and her kids (my sister in law and nephews), big distractions and something went wrong during cold start with a big distraction when he had the fast idle lever raised and the motor went 8000rpm with no load on it. It worked fine most of the rest of the day, lots of trolling, but on the return run, 13 miles out, at 3500 rpm, it threw a rod. We suppose the run up to 8000 rpm might have overstressed something.

Anyhow, we are debating whether the FICHT was a good enough engine to be worth rebuilding or swapping a reman power head? Or just toss it and look for a good used Yamaha four stroke, (which he is inclined to do). But something about the FICHT being a fuelie 2-stroke with classic 2-stroke architecture seems cool.

But I don't want to encourage him to fix the FICHT if it's not good advice and they're really more trouble than they're worth.

Then again, he's had it for the last 8 years and it's been excellent, so there's that...

-Peter

[Bodhi]

Consider this.....FICHT put omc into bankruptcy. Honestly, have a good working knowledge of that motor and keep an extra injector pack on board.
Like I want to do with my 90hp 2004 johnson. ..kick it off the transom and make an artificial reef to fish. My streams got a merc, my glastrons getting a merc, and my '63 caravelle will get a merc....tell the mechanic to trade in that sack of crap towards a real motor

[racer]

99 or 2000 not worth rebuilding. 01 or newer depends on hours. Injectors have a life span and are hard to get these days.

[delawarerick]

I think of the early ficht's like forces if you got a good one you run them till they die once bad seek another.

[Greg G]

We had a 2002 Evinrude 250 that was very solid but it took me a long time to find an '02 as I recognized the older motors were weak. Racer would know for sure but depending on what year your current motor is the harness may plug right into an ETEC. That is what I would be looking for. There are plenty of clean ETEC's out there now for short money. We just replaced the 2002 motor with a low hour 2010 ETEC 250HO. Might be worth looking around a bit for one.

[mikeylarge]

The earlier fichrs are either complete nightmares, ir trouble free until they decide to blow up. I wouldnt invest much into one.

[Ira Tindale]

BAD idea

[pcrussell50]

Thanks, guys. Very useful info on the breaking them out by year...
And good news maybe... It's a 2003. E225FPXSTM.

I wondered if it might have been newer, because it has Bombardier logos, and not OMC. It will be my FIL's decision, but I will pass on what you all suggested, good and bad.

Good to here from you, Al. CA is less of a place without you and your dad.

-Peter

[baja200merk]

03 is a good Ficht but it's still a Ficht. We have turned the stock Ficht rods and Pistons over 8k the stock rods and crank are fine but the Pistons go away fast if it stays up there. I doubt a Ficht made it to 8k.

Post a pic of the cyl

[pcrussell50]

I'll see if I can get the FIL to send a pic. The motor is not apart yet, and we are home and he's is home and he lives a long way away. And he's not super comfortable with internet and cameras a cell phones and such.

He has the bug in his ear about an etec now because of the common rigging with his newer FICHT.

Al, my FIL is Greg Hines (retired big time bass fishing pro), and his mechanic is Mike Baldwin out of Needles, big successful boat repair operation. They are old friends. Maybe you knew one or the other. Or Mike folkestad out of Orange county. You or your dad could very well have rigged one of his sponsorship boats back in the 80's or 90's.

-Peter

[vnemous]

Run away

[Greg G]

If your Father in Law has a 23' Center Console, the 2003 on the back is likely a 25" motor. We needed a 20" motor but I can tell you while I was looking there were a lot more 25" ETEC's out there.

[racer]

Yeah I know who Greg is. Mike and his family are old friends, we have a river place a couple miles from his shop. Mike and his dad use to buy new engines from us. When ever I am in town I stop by to say hi. A used e-tec would be a better option and will plug in so its an easy change over.

Thanks for the kind words, I do miss Ca. at times. My old service rep keeps trying to get me back out west but I don't want to work the long hours any longer.