Stratos with Merc motor ??

[pappastratos]

I was looking at a 98 Stratos bass boat for my son and it has a Merc motor. Owner says its the orginal motor,,how uncommon is this ?

[lkhartwl]

should not be as omc was still the owner in 1998. now maybe the dealer and person who bought it struck a deal . But a stratos, Jav, hydro-sport, all came supposedly from the factory pre rigged with a OMC motor. Now dealers did change but not too often to satisfy a customer and in the last years especially when the fichts were blowing left and right. but again it was done at the dealer and not from the factory.

[pappastratos]

The years match, it has a fuel injected merc 175, but the boat has the OMC gas tank warning tag between the seats,,what is a fichts ?

[F150owner]

FICHT (pronounced Fickt) is the Evinrude direct injection motor. I don't know what the letters stand for.

[lkhartwl]

sir as stated the customer and dealer may have struck a deal on a motor exchange it is not uncommon now a days but back in 98 it was a little uncommon.

[ChadASX]

One of my cousins used to run Stratos boats all through the late 80's and 90's and he would get a new one every couple years. Every one of his either had a merc or mariner on them. Several of them were already prerigged with Johnson's or Rudes and the dealer would swap them out for him. He refused to run anything except a merc or mariner back then. A couple he had with the 150 mariners were some fast boats for having 150's on there. He would smoke the guys with the same hull that had the omc's on the back. If it were me and looking at a 98 model boat and motor, I'd rather have the merc on the back. Many of the omc's, the FICHT's, had a lot of engine problems. I'd take the merc for sure over one of them.

[jason]

I have a '99 Evinrude Ficht (225) and from what I read before buying it, the problems were more with the smaller horsepower (175 and less) motors. As long as they have the upgrade kit on them, they should be fine. Mine has been a great motor (knock on wood!) .