# 175 johnson fast strike



## bunn81 (Nov 24, 2009)

Looking at a boat with a 1998 Johnson 175 fast strike ficht.  I dont know much about these motors.  I would like to have some input on them.(problems, good points, etc)  Thanks


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## THERAKE (Nov 26, 2009)

They dont have a fast strike ficht.It is either a fast strike or a ficht.The fast strike is a carburated engine,very reliable but uses a little more fuel.If it is a ficht stay away.Those are the engines that bankrupted omc.They are a direct injected eng.Good on fuel but the 150s and 175s gave alot of problems.I blew up 3 225s before I bought a new e tec.Good luck.


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## Mangler (Nov 26, 2009)

Talk with any boat dealer (even one that deals with Evinrude), they will tell you to stay far, far away from the fichts. I bought an older Ranger boat with a '99 175HP Ficht on it without knowing the problems that was associated with them. The motor had <20 hours on it. I was going to swap motors out with the one that was on my other 'older' Ranger. It had a 1990 175 HP Evinrude XP. I had 2 boat shops tell me that they would be more than willing to do it, but that I would crazy if I followed through with it. They promised me it would be in the shop more than it would be in the water! Do a google search on "Evinrude Ficht" and see what all the talk is about. Hope this helps. The one that I had for a very short time ran like a scalded dog and was very smooth and fuel efficient. My older XP runs like an old hot rod engine and sucks gas, but never had any problems out of it. Hope this helps! By the way I didn't swap it out and sold the boat/motor to a guy in Missouri that liked them.


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## hammerz71 (Nov 28, 2009)

I had a '99 Javelin for over 8 years with a 175 Ficht on it.  Bought it new just before the holidays in '98.
There was a recall on the Fichts, which was basically almost a top end rebuild.  Not many got their motors in for it before the bankruptcy, but I did as I had a buddy at the boat dealership, called me and got me in right away as soon as the parts were made available.
You can tell it it was retrofitted by a tag affixed to the inside under the cowl, basically to let anyone working on it know that it had many new/different parts.  I think on the tag it said something like "Ram fuel injection upgrade".
I had my boat/motor until the fall of '07 and never had any issue whatsoever.  Always started, ran quiet and sipped gas.  Probably used about 60% of the gas my previous 140 HP Johnson did.
IMO, if you can find one for a good price that made it in under the recall and was retrofitted, you'll be fine.  If there is no evidence of this work being done, then I'd leave it alone...


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## Gotfive (Nov 30, 2009)

hammerz71 said:


> I had a '99 Javelin for over 8 years with a 175 Ficht on it.  Bought it new just before the holidays in '98.
> There was a recall on the Fichts, which was basically almost a top end rebuild.  Not many got their motors in for it before the bankruptcy, but I did as I had a buddy at the boat dealership, called me and got me in right away as soon as the parts were made available.
> You can tell it it was retrofitted by a tag affixed to the inside under the cowl, basically to let anyone working on it know that it had many new/different parts.  I think on the tag it said something like "Ram fuel injection upgrade".
> I had my boat/motor until the fall of '07 and never had any issue whatsoever.  Always started, ran quiet and sipped gas.  Probably used about 60% of the gas my previous 140 HP Johnson did.
> IMO, if you can find one for a good price that made it in under the recall and was retrofitted, you'll be fine.  If there is no evidence of this work being done, then I'd leave it alone...


I bought a new 98 Stratos with a 175 Ficht and took it back for the recall. I ran it for 10 years before it blew with nearly 800 hours. I can't say a bad word about it. I think you should check and see if it has had the modifications before you buy it. My guess if it has lasted this long, it has.


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## Doyle (Nov 30, 2009)

The bad Ficht years where when OMC was just about bankrupt and for the first year that Bombardier had them.  In fact, it was the bad Fichts that cemented OMC's demise.   After that, Bombardier got the production standards up and they have been much more reliable.


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