Almost 12 month review of my bf250 Honda motors

[how900]

So my pair of bf250's are 11 months old and have just clocked 300hrs and have been working great, I have them connected to a ray marine e7 display to get all the engine data via the nema connection. It works very well and cheaper then Honda gauges, which in truth look old and outdated by today's standards.
previous to these I had a pair of 2007 optimax 225's, these worked fine until about 300 hrs and then gave a constant problems with air compressors, lower unit failures, fuel injectors, coil packs, spark plugs, and eventually 3 power head failures.....different engine and different problems but a total nightmare once they got more than 500 hrs on them, So all in all not my best purchase.
so how is life with the Hondas, well I run a boat commercially, although not clocking up massive hours but probably 300-350 hrs per year. Running about 4500rpm for runs of 5-10 minutes, then idling, then another run, almost never wot, except to test everything is ok maybe once a month for maybe 20 seconds max,.......I don't like the sound of a screaming engine,....especially when they cost 20k each
running on a 9meter rib about 7000lb, and carrying a max of 12 passengers and 2 crew so all up probably about 9000lb when fully loaded.
running the same props from my Merc, Revolution 4 21p it runs fine, topping out at 6000rpm and 46kts with full fuel and 6 people on board.
Speed it a little down on the merc due to the slower prop speed, no denying it, optimax's are fast powerful engines when they are running well, so I am about 4.5 knots slower than when running the mercs
if I get the chance I will try some bigger diameter 3 bladed props, these might work better than the merc ones but I live in a remote area and finding lots of props to try is not easy but maybe one day
after about 20hrs I had an ignition switch failure, it gave me a warning one day, then 3 days later it crapped out, and one o2 sensor failure, I had read about these so had a spare one, took 2 minutes to change and off we go again.
I can say I am very happy with these engine, I feel like the engines are producing a very conservative 250hp, from the 3.6 Lt engine but hope this will give me many years of use. I am hoping for 3000hrs of use then hopefully trade in my working engine for some new ones, unlike my old ones which are sitting by my house and I can't get much money back because they don't have a good name round here. Most people using yams.
Anyway honda has proved to be a good choice, before I bought Honda I checked prices on things spares I had used on my merc, merc fuel injectors are 400usd each and the opti's had 12 of them,
Honda backup has been good and dealer is knowledgable, one of my friends is just about to replace his 115hp yam with has served him well but getting tired for a new Honda,
fuel consumption is a little better than the merc's, but not by much,
'I insist on genuine oil, filters and stick exactly to the service schedule, so far I love my Honda, being able to talk with the engine on idle is so nice, the just whisper along in the background, unlike the 2 opti's that would make lots of noise.
Merc's might be fine for a weekend boater who does 20 hrs a year, and the power of the opti's is great, I would bet my 225 opti's running well seemed at least as powerful as my 250 Hondas,....sounds amazing but I think it's true... but in truth they can't hold a candle to jap made engines for being reliable .....any jap engine really would expect to give you 3000hrs, merc's are lucky to make 1000hr.
I have a friend who put 1000 hard hrs on a 34ft intrepid with 2x300 Suzuki, he loved them, till the boat sank, but then he got some more, a friend of mine has a dive shop, put 3000 hard hours on there dive boat, traded his yam f250's in still running and got almost half the money he needed for his new engines. Good maintanance is the key

[mcyama]

Well, Sounds like you are very happy. Down here in South Louisiana are the oilfield's. I installed a pair of BF 250's on a 40 foot aluminum oilfield service boat in 2011. As of today there has been some gearcase or powerhead failures due to impact and low water conditions Service is performed every 100 hrs. Belts changed every 1000 hrs. High pressure and low pressure filters at 100 hrs. Vapor seperator basket filter every 1000 hrs. The origional spark plugs were not worth a hoot. I replaced them with bf225 plugs and replace them every 500 hrs. I do not run Honda 10-30 motor oil or Honda gear oil. Instead I use Yamaha 20-40 motor oil and their heavy duty gear oil. Due to what I think are very tight clearances in the crankcase and gearcase. Seperation of metal rotating components is critical. Valve clearance is checked ever 1000 hrs. Thermostats fail pre maturely. The main water outlets will corrode and cause motor to overheat. Water pumps every 500 hrs. I do attribute their longevity to the use of Marval oil in every fuel fill up. Also the use of Racor water seperators. Remote control has been governed back to a Max of 5300 RPM. I run Yamaha Saltwater Series 2 props. I will come close to 8000 hrs by the end of 2016. Thanks

[ROS]

Hi how900 ,
I write from Italy and on my BF 250 five sensors were broken in 360 hours, the first four have lived about 40 hours each, the last about 200 hours.


I hope the greater life of the last is not accidental, I hope it is the result of a Honda attempt to solve the problem.

I would like to know if changing a single sensor you have definitely solved the problem or after the problem returned.


Thank you

[GEEBASS2000]

Could you tell me what were your symptoms when your o2 sensor went bad??