One of my 2003 Evinrude Ficht 250's seized and put a rod thru the block. Engine had 230 hours on it, 65% at 2000 or less. Do a lot of trolling. No alarms before the failure. Dealer showed me the piston and what was left of the rod. The piston looked like it had been in a furnace, top was melted with peices of rigs embeded in it. Skirts were covered with transfered or melted material. BRP provided a new powerhead under warranty, impressed. The local dealer did a lot of Ficht testing for OMC in the early days and has factory trained mechanics and equipment. The rebuilt engine is running fine after 50 hours.<br /><br />The dealer checked and found that we have the latest engine mapping available. I am in the Caribbean and virtually all the 225 / 250's here have had this same problem in less than 300 hours, some do a lot of trolling, others run WOT most of the time. It looks like the piston starts rubbing, transfers metal, overheats and then things go downhill fast.<br /><br />I feel that increasing the oil that is injected would stop this problem but I understand it is computer controlled and can't be changed, except for the double oil flow for the 5 hour breakin. Does the oil flow thru jets to each cylinder which could be opened up a bit ? No EPA emission regs down here.<br /><br />It isn't a stale gas problem as I go thru 50 to 100 gallons a week and tankers bring gas to the island every week. Using XD 50 Evinrude oil and at the rate it is used I am sure the flow is normal.<br /><br />Plugs are replaced or re-gapped every 40 hours with the specified champion plug, QC12PEPA ?, as the center electrodes wear down quickly. Gap goes from 028 to 050 or more in 40 hours.<br /><br />Any ideas to prevent the other engine from failing while I am 40 miles offshore?
