This picture just about sums up my experience with a 150 Ficht. My advice as a former owner of a 1998 150 ficht (DON'T DO IT!!!!) The motor only had 161 hours. It had the updated pinned heads, the old style injectors, and aluminum finned computer.
I included a list of links and tibits that I compiled about the motor. I could never get it running right and neither could the local evinrude dealer, which cost me $1100 before I cut my losses and sold the motor.
That being said there are some folks (
http://www.seatowboston.com/vessels.html ) who have sucessfully logged 3500+ hours on their motors with special machined heads, lots of special care, and some modifications.
I own the FICHT 1.42B software - so if you want to "borrow it" I'll be happy to hook you up.
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MAC - If your buying this motor thinking you're going to save money b/c the motor will burn less fuel . . . you're dead wrong. These are HIGH maintainece motors.
1. plugs are $8ea and you MUST index them 30 ft/lbs torque . . . 1/2 of them won't index properly so you will need about 10 to 12 plugs to find 6 good ones.
http://www.boatsetup.com/PlgIndexing.html
2. You must run special FICHT/ETEC oil @ $22 gallon
3. Because of the Soot like carbon buildup you have to decarb the motor every 75hours (every 50 if you like to troll).
http://www.boatsetup.com/Decarb_FICHT.html
*****These extra costs will eat up any fuel savings*****
l
DFI TEchnologies is a company formed by the old OMC ficht engineers. Their page is a good read and talks about some of the common problems.
http://www.dfitechnologies.com/solutions_apps.html
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These are the things to look out for . . .
97, 98 or 99 had these under a big plastic shroud => run away!!! 2000 years moved to a water cooled design which also had some overheating problems with water passages getting clogged.
Check the injectors => this is the old style. Supposedly (per DFI Technologies) motors with these injectors are lucky to make it past 500hrs. If you have these get a trolling motor and only run the FICHT at high rpms.
Check the Heads=>see if it's got pins next to the plugs in the heads.
=> this article shows the difference b/w the two setups.
http://www.boatsetup.com/PlgIndexing.html