"Ficht fuel injection was intr
"Ficht fuel injection was introduced in 1997 for both Johnson and Evinrude as a special edition engine. For 1998, the entire Evinrude line went "green" Everything from 90hp on up was Ficht DFI 2 stroke, from 70 on down was 4 Stroke EFI. The Johnson line remained the traditional carb 2 stroke. It remained this way until around 2002 where the entire Evinrude line was Ficht. Johnson paralleled the carb 2 stroke line with the 4 stroke line all the way through the HP range.
If you're looking for a late 90's motor, you don't want a DI 2 stroke in any brand. Evinrude Ficht, Mercury DFI or Optimax, or Yamaha HPDI. They all had issues early on. The Yami was probably the least troublesome of the early DI's.
Evinrude recalled and repaired most of the problems that gave the motors the bad rap. The engineering problems were solved, and the solutions rolled out in a long series of recalls to update all the motors out in the field. The cost of all these recalls probably contributed to the bankruptcy. Quality control issues popped up in the year or so before the bankruptcy.
Unfortunatly, Mercury didn't stand behind their early DI product quite as well. If the powerhead blowed up under warrenty, you got a new powerhead with the updates. If it blowed up out of warrenty, you spent big bucks to buy a new powerhead with the updates. If it ran like crap and wouldn't blow up, you had a crappy running motor no one would do anything about."
