2000 Evinrude Ficht 150 - "Popcorn miss" SOLVED

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ph3n0m

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Jul 8, 2013
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Greets from Panama City, FL!

Long time reader, first time poster. Thought I'd share my story in hopes of maybe helping someone else out.

I'm a service member, freshly stationed at Tyndall AFB in Panama City, FL. When I got stationed here four months ago, my father gave me an old 1980 Wellcraft to fix up. After I worked on the boat for three months I took it on the water and, due to an improperly installed water pump grommet (my fault), my #1 piston of the 1985 Johnson 150 melted after an hour of use. Knowing I'd already invested a ton of cash (for us, at least) in the refurb, the spousal unit gave me the OK to shop for a replacement motor.

After a long search, I found a pair of 2000 Evinrude Ficht 150s (1 standard and 1 counter-rotating) at a local Yamaha dealer on consignment super cheap. Apparently, a guy re-powered his boat with Yamaha 4-strokes and had his 'Rudes on consignment for months. Since that marine shop is not an authorized Evinrude repair facility, I contacted a another authorized Evinrude service shop to check the motors before I bought them. They charged me $255.00 to run a warranty history report on both motors, drive 10 minutes to the motor location, check out the motors, run an EMM history report, verify all warranty work was completed correctly, diagnose the motors with the Evinrude software program, tell me if the motors were updated with all recalls (if any) and in good condition then return (10 more minutes) to their shop.

The mechanic arrived to check the outboards. I watched as he did his work. The Yamaha dealer passed info from the motor owners to the mechanic, so the mechanic had the following info available to him;
1) The history of both motors. Only one motor showed warranty work had been done--it had the #2 injector replaced.
2) The Evinrude printout information from the diagnostic program showing temps, hours, injector information, etc. ~230 hours on each motor.
3) The Yamaha dealer told the mechanic that the motor with the replaced injector (the standard-rotating motor, E150FPXSSM) under warranty had a slight miss in the mid-range RPMs. The other motor, (counter-rotating E150FCXSSM) had a slight problem with the tilt-and-trim.
4) The mechanic pulled and inspected all plugs. The spark plug from the E150FPXSSM #2 cylinder with the replaced injector was spotless. He said it looked “washed,” saying it was probably because the plugs weren’t indexed correctly. He started the motor, and after hearing it idle, said that whatever caused the plug to be clean wouldn’t affect the engine at all.

He started both motors and checked them for almost two hours--obviously, not running for the entire time. He said that after reviewing the printout and history, they were both good outboards, were completely updated and in excellent working order. I trusted his advice-- after all, I hired him to act as my proxy, so he had no dog in the fight and he was an Authorized Evinrude Technician... I offered $3000 for both motors. The owner accepted. My plan--install the standard rotating and stash the other in case I need the parts for the other.

After installing the motor (the E150FPXSSM), I ran the boat and found that, under load, the mid-range was missing pretty badly between ~2500-~3500, so I decided to try and research the problem myself.

I read every post I could from this board and others to learn all I could about the Evinrudes. I replaced and indexed the plugs, decarbed the motor and replaced the exhaust pressure sensor in hopes I could eliminate what I found to be called, the "popcorn miss." Nothing worked.

I finally bought the Evinrude Diagnostic program (v 4.5) and cable from the internet and reviewed the motor printout as well as the printout that the mechanic gave to me. Fortunately, I learned from the forums that, since the injector had been replaced, the EMM must be re-written with the injector coefficients of the new injector. I thought it wouldn't hurt anything to check this was accomplished during the warranty injector replacement. Unbelievably, I found the EMM was not updated with the serial number or coefficients of the new injector! Moreover, this was the injector for the same cylinder (#2) that had the "washed" plug. This is when I contacted BRP (Evinrude Customer Service at 262-884-5993) for help and advice.

I spoke to a rep at Evinrude and passed my story. After hearing my situation, the representative said he thought it was unacceptable that the Evinrude service mechanic didn’t catch the problem when checking out the motors, especially with the information he had available. He said if he were me, he’d ask for my money back--so I did. The owner said, “That’s what I get for buying 2000 Evinrude motors,” and “there was no way I was getting my money back.” Further, he said he was going to have nothing else to do with the motors--he said he wasn’t going to do any work on them in the future. I was disappointed to say the least. Reversed the charge on my credit card and plan to file a BBB complaint as soon as I get an extra hour off duty. I guess you just get screwed sometimes if you're not a local. Maybe not true 100% of the time, but that's how it felt.

Back to Evinrude customer service-- the rep with whom I spoke suggested I send an email to the customer service outlining my issue, include all documents I had and request the coefficients. I did that last week and have heard nothing back. Still waiting.

In the interim, I gave up asking for help and decided to take care of it myself. The new injector had a Datamatrix code on the sticker. After doing copious amounts of research, I found the code to be a circa-2001 Datamatrix ECC000-140 code-- very proprietary. So proprietary in fact, it took about 10 different queries to find a UPC/2D scanner company who could decode it. Finally, today, I received a positive reply from a very well-known company who produces industrial scanners and other items... Rhymes with "Moneysmell." Their reply: 35,256,1080,24907675,00257100015053. Success!

I brought my kid's trusty micro-notebook and chord out to the boat, hooked it up and, with the greatest of ease, popped in the coefficients and re-wrote the EMM in a matter of 69 seconds. Flush with anticipation, I started her up and----PERFECTION. So incredibly quiet and smooth, I couldn't believe it. I brought her out of the dock and ran her around the bayou. Not one single miss, hiccup, surge or burp. Only silky-smooth (and amazingly quiet) 2-stroke power. I am beyond ecstatic. This is how I imagine a new motor would perform. I couldn't believe the previous owner ran this thing for 10 years with that miss.

So, in my situation, the POPCORN MISS was attributed to incorrect injector coefficients. If you have this issue and nothing else has worked, check the injector serial number listed in the EMM report matches the SNs on your injectors. Although this is no guarantee the coefficients are correct, you have a high probability of them NOT BEING CORRECT if the EMM injector SNs don't match those found on the injector stickers.

I hope this helps someone out. Reading posts from the old farts on this forum got me looking in the right direction. I'd like to say thanks to those who argued for AND against the Ficht. I'm certain I wouldn't have found the issue if not for the lengthy threads kept alive by the Ficht hatred! Of course, I kid...

Finally, I'd like to pass a big "Thanks!" to daselbee for helping me out and getting me pointed in the right direction. Kudos to you, Sir--you know your Sh!t.

Jon
 
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Daviet

Fleet Admiral
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Re: 2000 Evinrude Ficht 150 - "Popcorn miss" SOLVED

Thanks for the report, I am sure it will be of assistance to someone in the future.
 

Shawnee

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Joined
Sep 1, 2011
Messages
29
Re: 2000 Evinrude Ficht 150 - "Popcorn miss" SOLVED

Thanks for the report, I am sure it will be of assistance to someone in the future.

I am looking at a boat with a 2000 FICHT motor on it and ended up here. This post is a great post!

Thanks
:)
 

hongdida

Recruit
Joined
Jul 20, 2014
Messages
1
Greets from Panama City, FL!

In the interim, I gave up asking for help and decided to take care of it myself. The new injector had a Datamatrix code on the sticker. After doing copious amounts of research, I found the code to be a circa-2001 Datamatrix ECC000-140 code-- very proprietary. So proprietary in fact, it took about 10 different queries to find a UPC/2D scanner company who could decode barcode it. Finally, today, I received a positive reply from a very well-known company who produces industrial scanners and other items... Rhymes with "Moneysmell." Their reply: 35,256,1080,24907675,00257100015053. Success!

it used datamatrix code, wow, nice. Really great post. Mark!!!:D
 

Ggourgues

Recruit
Joined
Jun 2, 2002
Messages
1
Hi ph3n0m!

Your issues with the dreaded Ficht Popcorn Misfire sound eerily familiar. As do your struggles with technicians working on the Ficht motors. I read your post and I have a couple of questions.

1) Where did you purchase your version 4.5 software? I have an antiquated version - 1.42b - possibly part of my problem.
2) Can you pass on some more information about the Datamatrix code and any short cuts to obtain this from "Moneysmell"?

I am not much of a computer guy but I have 30+ years experience in auto repair. This issue has me a bit stumped but a later and easier to use diagnostic program may help. I passed-on the problem to a well respected outboard technician in my area but after purchasing a new EMM and having a couple of sets of coefficients provided by BRP rewritten into it, here I am still searching for answers.

Any information you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

GG
 

ron3421

Cadet
Joined
Apr 26, 2016
Messages
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Hello GG - saw your post on the ficht software upgrades and injector decoding and wondered if you figured them out - i have same problems.
Thanks
 

GA_Boater

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
May 24, 2011
Messages
49,038
Hello GG - saw your post on the ficht software upgrades and injector decoding and wondered if you figured them out - i have same problems.
Thanks

ron3421 GG won't be answering you. He made this one post over a year ago, his only post in 13 years since joining.

Please read The Help Tip on top of the page and start a new thread.

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