A great engine!
Written: Mar 23 '05 (Updated Mar 25 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Reliable, quiet and rugged.
Cons: Needs to be warmed up before it will give power.
The Bottom Line: Excellent. In over 2000 hours of heavy use, under conditions that were often terrible, this engine never failed me.
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| neilfrazer's Full Review: Honda 50 Four Stroke |
I purchased a Honda 50 new in 1998 and ran it for six seasons (2000-2500 hours) on a heavy, seventeen-foot aluminum boat off the coasts of British Columbia and southeast Alaska. It never let me down.
This engine runs very quiet at low speeds, but it is not especially quiet at full power.
Early on, the mechanic at a sportfish camp in Hakai (running Honda 50s on 17' Boston Whalers) told me that the charging coils would go after 500 hours, and that is exactly what happened. The charging coils are easy to replace, and you can tell when replacement is needed because the tachometer stops working. The engine runs fine with bad charging coils, but when the battery finally wears down you will have to pull start. This engine pull starts very easily, though taking the flywheel protector off means removing four bolts, which is inconvenient.
The same mechanic told me that the jets would eventually plug up with particles of the dye used to mark marine fuel in BC, but that the jets were easily cleaned with the wire from a bread-wrapper twistie. In fact I never needed to clean the jets, perhaps because I occasionally used automotive fuel, which isn't dyed and because I always winterized carefully, running the engine out of gas and then draining the carbs.
I had to replace the impeller six times, because I was often in shallow, sandy water. It is an easy thing to replace.
The valve clearances are easily adjusted with a spanner and and feeler gauge. I did this once a season.
The engine does not seem to wear out spark plugs, possibly because it is a cool running engine. You may never need to replace the plugs.
Occasionally I found it necessary to remove from the block the hose that takes the tell-tale water stream from the block to the exterior, and then poke a thin piece of wire into the hole in the block to clean a bit of wood or seaweed out of it. More often it was sufficient to poke the wire up the hose itself without disconnecting it. You may never need to do this. I was operating in salt water week after week, with no chance to ever flush the engine, so I only flushed it when winterizing. I kept the zincs shiny, and never noticed any corrosion other than on the zincs
I replaced the propellor about a dozen times after hitting rocks. Honda propellors were expensive, so I ran Yamaha props, which fit just fine and gave good performance. Mercury props also fit, but you need to grind a couple of notches in one of the washers. Be sure to prop for your heaviest load, so you never have to lug the engine.
The fuel pump failed, but that was my fault for running the engine out of gas on half a dozen occasions. It is important to note here that the fuel pump did not fail catastrophically; all that happened is that the oil level began to increase in the crankcase. Anyway, the fuel pump is easy to replace, but only if you have the right socket--the bolt on the bottom of the fuel pump is hard to reach.
I was far from civilization when the fuel pump failed, so I had to run with it. The fuel in the crankcase eventually damaged the upper crankshaft oil seal, causing a small oil leak. The upper crankshaft seal was not difficult to replace, but you have to know what you are doing.
The mechanical switch that prevents the engine from starting when it is in gear failed from lack of lubrication, so I shorted it, and never thought about it again.
I hit a rock in Butze Rapids (near Prince Rupert) and sheared off the skeg. The gearcase, and propellor seals were undamaged by this, and a welder friend repaired the skeg so carefully you would never know.
After six seasons the starter failed because I had failed to lubricate the bushing at the bottom of the starter. (I use my boat for coastal surveys which means starting and stopping ten times as frequently as is normal.) I believe that if I had lubricated this bushing when the starter began to squeal, it would never have failed. It gave me months of notice.
I always ran synthetic oil in the gearcase (important!) and synthetic oil in the crankcase (perhaps less important). On many occasions I ran this engine at 100% power for 8-10 hours without a break. I tried to change the oil at around 75 hours instead of the regular 100 hours.
The auxiliary engine on my boat is a pair of oars, so engine reliability is a big concern. When I repowered last fall, I bought another Honda 50. My old Honda 50 is still running fine on the boat of a friend, and I expect it will last much longer than either of us.
P.S.
In the summary at the end of the review, in the category "number of hours logged," the maximum value allowed by epinions is "500-1000," so that is what I selected. However, the actual number of hours logged is over 2000.
PPS.
There is one small "con" to this engine that I ought to have remembered.
As the Honda 50 is a conventionally carbureted engine without a computer to monitor combustion, it will not give you power until it is warmed up--you cannot start it and expect to immediately race away. Of course, that is a bad thing to do to an engine anyway, and normally you would never want to do it. Still, such occasions arise. Once my boat was lined out from a lee shore (poor planning on my part) when the wind suddenly rose. I pulled the boat in from anchor, and loaded my gear, but when I attempted to pull the boat back out to anchor through the swash, the anchor dragged. I lowered the engine part way, and started it, but being cold, it would not give me the power I needed to fight my way to deeper water. While I waited for it to warm up, I kept the boat from the beach through a combination of tension on the clothesline, work with the oars, and, of course, vile language toward my own lack of foresight.
The above experience did not dissuade me from re-powering with an identical Honda 50, but it might be a consideration if your boat is an emergency vehicle.
I find that most Honda dealers don't know what will go wrong with the Honda 50 because so few of their customers ever put enough hours on them to find out. (As two earlier reviews noted, most problems are due to lack of simple maintenance, such as failing to winterize.) When I bought my Honda 50, I explained that I would be using it in remote areas and asked what to carry as spares. My dealer had no idea (apart from obvious things like props and impellers) and neither did any of the dealers to whom I subsequently put the same question. Anyway, I would emphasize that the best place to get information on any outboard is from a boat rental that runs 30-50 of them. In the summer the mechanic will be too busy to talk to you, but if you can catch him in the winter, you will learn a lot.
Now when I am cruising (in British Columbia and Alaska) I carry two spare propellers, two spare impellers, an extra set of prop washers, extra fuses, charging coils, and a fuel pump. I also carry lots of extra oil and a small hand pump so that I can make oil changes on schedule.
If I were running an electronic fuel-injected engine in British Columbia I would carry an extra internal fuel filter, as the dye used to mark marine gas in BC can eventually plug those filters. If I were running an engine that didn't pull start, I would carry an extra battery and perhaps a solar panel.
In fairness to Honda dealers, they do usually give you one piece of advice on the Honda 50 that is very worthwhile: "Change the oil and don't lug 'em." Amen to that.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
neilfrazer
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Reviews written: 1
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