2001 Evinrude FICHT 250hp bad cylinder??

Morning gents,
This site was recommended from The Hull Truth for OMC help. I have a 2001 250hp Evinrude FICHT. I am going on my third rebuild and am starting to lose hope. Each time it has failed, the cause has been something different. 1st time was overheating due to a piece of trash in the head (debris from a thermostat cover that had to be chipped away) . 2nd time was bad timing (my fault). This time is unknown.

The #5 & #3 cylinders have failed this time. The #5 piston is melted away at the exhaust port. The #3 piston is scarred only at the ends of the wrist pin. It seems to me that #3 failed as a result of #5, due to heat maybe?

Do you think this is a lean condition due to a bad injector? Every failure has been at WOT around 6000rpm. I first pointed the finger at the oil injector, but no trouble codes were set when the engine failed. I had the computer repaired by DFI last year, new oil pump last year, new oil injector this year (not installed yet), needless to say I am getting tired of throwing parts at it.

Here is a link to the pictures of the pistons THT http://www.thehulltruth.com/bo....html. Any help is appreciated.

With what you've spent on the motor, your best bet is to find another, at least a 2002 or later if you want to stay with direct injected ones. Those are Bombardier built and have so much more quality than the 2001 and earlier OMC built motors.

One thing to do is to have your mech perform a fuel vacuum and bubble inspection test on your boat's fuel system when your next or rebuilt motor is installed. Poor fuel plumbing is almost the cause of every multiple-powerhead failure.

Seahorse, thanks for the reply.

Do you have any info on the bubble test? We can work on just about anything so I would like to take a shot at the bubble test myself.

How sensitive are these motors to old fuel? I was running year old gas when this last failure occured. The piston doesn't look like a lean condition because of all of the carbon that is still on it, it is not gray/silver like you would normally see. Can a failing oil injector not send oil to one cylinder? Seems like an all or nothing type of device.

Parting this engine out is starting to look better and better.