Honda outboards...Questions

[pl99]

PS before I raised my transom. I always had water on the deck coming thru scuppers. I just lived with it.. Put self draining to the test.. Damn Good outboard.

I had an '06 150 VTEC on an 18ft flats boat until this year. It ran great - no problems at all. BUT - it is slow coming out of the hole and in shallow water I had to use the trim tabs to help it get out of the water. It has that variable shifting cam that takes it up a notch when you reach 4500 rpm - actually shifts the cam to a different set of lobes. Runs at 130HP below 4500 RPM and gets the 150HP rating running over 4500 RPM. Sort of frustrating trying to run right at 4500 - it would be shifting up and running away and thne coming back down - I was constantly on the throttle at that setting. Learn to run inder or over 4500 - but not at 4500.

Very quiet idle - several times I forgot to shut it down while I was on the bow fishing. I was told the 150 is the Honda Civic 4 cylinder engine block turned vertical - don't know that for a fact.

You are all right - very large profile and very heavy sitting on the transom. I would get comments like - "is that a Volkswagen mounted on your boat?" Had to move trolling motor and start batteries forward to try and compensate for the weight - still sat really low in the water.


I do find this: the guides and charter people run whatever engine they get get a sponsor to give them. The commercial trap and net guys run Hondas almost exclusively. That is in the southeast Georgia and Northeast Florida area - don't know about other areas of the country.

[Caymanboy]

I service all motors, particuliarly like Yamaha, but as of late have not seen any major issue's with any of them, as far as working on them, the Honda has the easiest and best way to do service, accesability,mess, etc. The one's i have worked on have been good.

[ricknewman]

Hey Apnea,
Norfolk Marine used to sell and service Honda's if you're in the CBBT area. Don't know if they still do.

[apneadreams]

Thanks for all the replies.....good useful info...unfortunately, the person(s) selling the outboard is a scammer...but I will keep my eyes open for a good used or possibly go with a new 150 yamaha in gthe spring...I'm still in the process of restoring the boat so I'm in no real hurry....thanks again.

[eggsuckindog]

forget it - my Merc is 406/411 and you can't stand another pound back there, and water in the boat down in Fl is alot different than up there. Raising the transom will not help the scuppers unless you raised the floor too. Great motors for offshore long haul boats but not good performance for small light runabouts