Joe & the others

[John R]

Are any of you running a 1999-2000 200 or 225 Ficht? Joe - you are a dealer what is your opinion of these engines - specifically 1999 - after the updates have been completed on them?

Also wondering what kind of performance you've seen on a 23SC and a 225 Ficht - speed WOT, Cruise, GPH @ Cruise...

Thanks alot!

John

[Hooper]

Hi John-

I can't speak for the older models, but last fall I repowered with a 2003 Evinrude 225. I only have 58 hours on it, and I plan on installing a floscan to determine fuel efficiency sometime soon here, but so far so good. We put a new stainless prop on it just before it was winterized and I haven't gotten much time on the water with it yet. But, under an aluminum wheel ad 100+ gallons of fuel, our 23 would do 26-27kts pretty easy and wot was about 38kts. Feel free to email me at ggibbons@attbi.com if you want anything else, I'd be glad to let you know how I have done.

I looked long and hard at everything out there and finally decided to give the 'rude a chance. My dealer recently told me (long after he made the sale) that about 4800 fichts had been sold since the buyout by bombardier and 4 have come back, all for faulty installation issues, no engine engineering problems.

Feel free to drop me a line. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

-Hooper www.stripersandblues.com

[barnacle]

The 99 and 00 engines are ones you need to watch out for. If all the updates were done then it should be ok. Have someone access the ecu and find out how many hours are on the engine. If it has over 150 hours then the engine should live for many more hours. If it has less then 100 hrs then stay away from it. The rule of thumb with the older di is if it lived past 100 hours then its good to go. The more hours on it the better it is. As for the 23 seacraft we have not installed a 225 Di one one. We have a few on 23 grady whites and they are running about the same as Hoopers rig.
Hooper we are installing the Helmsman series gauge package on a 2003 Di and since you want to add a flow scan this may be something you may want to look at. It cost more then a flow scan but the functions it provides is nice. The Helmsman system will only work on DI engines. Your local dealer should have info on it. If not feel free to ask me any question or I can send you some info the system. If your in South Jersey we should have the system up and running is about 2 weeks.