2000 Evinrude FITCH, What's the real deal????

[fishing_va]

Sea trailed a 2000 Hydra Sports 2796 w/twin Evinrude 225 FITCH's, +/-450 hrs, New/upgraded EMM, which I was told was the biggest issue, during a 25 min sea trail running WOT the starboard engines drops to 3K rpm then shuts off. Once back at dealership compression check shows it dropped 2 cylinders. Drove 12 hours, came back 13hrs with no boat!

What's the real deal with the FITCH's? They discontinued them for some reason?

Also, what’s the difference between the FITCH, HPDI and OPTIMAX aren't they all basically the same technology? Why have the other succeeded?

[fountain-boy]

well ill try to answer your question as easy as possable. im a boat mechanic in central jersey. i have dealt with all three motor. the differances in motors is the way the fuel is supplied to cylinders. HPDI stands for high pressure direct injection, yamaha thought that by putting the fuel under extream pressure it atomizes the fuel better. optimax is mercs answer to direct injection, merc also uses an air pump. omc went belly up and i believe that to be the reason they are making the etech now. motors are made by man, in turn that means everything is subject to failure. motors shouldnt be run at W.O.T. for extended periods of time no matter what brand it is.

[barnacle bills marine]

Ficht is a love or hate relationship. The problem engines that we saw were with the 150/175 enignes from around 1997 to 1999. The larger and smaller fichts did not carry the problems. They were discontinued due to the ETEC which is a 3 star rated outboard vrs the 2 star ficht. I run a 225 Ficht and have no plans of changing it. All three makers of the 2 stroke Di have had there growing pains.

The Ficht outboard had nothing to do with OMC going under. OMC was sold in the early 90's by a company that purchased large company's and broke them up. OMC was alot more then just outboards back then. By the later 90's OMC was a stand alone ouboard business, with a few boat companys. While the Ficht did not help matters much, they still would have gone under if they had no problems with them. It was bad leadership.

Outboards unlike sterndrives and inboards are made to run at wide open throttle. Even the problem fichts outboards if you ran them wide open they never blew up. Its the low to mid range that kills these engines. I run my 225 Ficht wide open when ever the sea's allow it.

[fishing_va]

Even the problem fichts outboards if you ran them wide open they never blew up.

Actually, I had heard the samething about running them at WOT, but this 225 actually dropped at WOT? Go figure that! Also, WOT is really not WOT is it? Your throttle controlls are adjusted so that you can't actually redline a motor?

[blackwell50]

Actually, I had heard the samething about running them at WOT, but this 225 actually dropped at WOT? Go figure that! Also, WOT is really not WOT is it? Your throttle controlls are adjusted so that you can't actually redline a motor?

They should be adjusted so that the throttle bodies reach full throttle at the desired position.Having the correct propeller keeps you from overtwisting it.Cables stretch after time anyway.

[shoefish]

I don't have much experience with the FICHT's, but what I do I'll throw in. We were running a world cat with fichts in the turks two years ago and had very similar problems as you are having.

When we finally talked to the mechanic to find out how to fix the problem he said, and I quote "Take out the four bolts........ and then 'trow it in the ground". After that trip our saying was "If you've got FICHT, your f*cked!".

I hear that the newer ones are just about bulletproof though. Best of luck.

[barnacle bills marine]

Control adjustment is for your idle speed setting. If your cables cannot move the throttle or air plates to wide open then they are stretched or you have a control box problem. You should be able to hit wide open throttle when ever you want to. Like stated above his is done with the right size prop. He did not state what 2 cylinders went. We would need to see pic's of all the pistions to see what happened. It could be anything from a oil supply problem to them 2 cylinders, a temp problem, or a fuel supply problem. Again we would need to see what all 6 pistons look like.