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water Leak 2006 Honda BF 225

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xsplicer26

Contributing Member
Well after replacing the VST and the motor running really well, today I ran the motor with garden hose to just check everything was fine before going fishing tomorrow, I discovered a major water leak coming from behind the fuel rails. It appears to be a hole in either the cylinder head or the block itself. I think it is the block. See attached pic. This is looking down from the starboard side of the engine.
 

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You can try a patch up to keep it going but it's temporary and could cause engine failure anytime. Usually one would replace the motor or repair by fitting a new power head.No magical fix I'm afraid, another victim of salt water.
 
Thanks for the reply Ian. If I can patch it up and maybe get the rest of this season out of it that would be great, and then over the winter I will repower with new motor.
 
So far I have remove the cylinder head to access the area where the corrosion has eaten 2 holes at the top of the short block, right where the cylinder head meets the short block. I used JB Weld Steel Stick to make repairs after cleaning the corroded holes with wire brush.
I will be putting everything back together today and give it a test run.
I will post some pics later.
 
Everything is back together and the JB Weld worked just fine after running the motor hooked up to muffs, no leaks.

Here are some pics of what the corrosion looked like after I removed the cylinder head and cleaned up and then with the epoxy applied to it.

The corrosion created what looked like a bridge across from the side of the block to the cylinder outer wall, sorry I didn't take a pic of that. While removing the corrosion, I noticed a second hole just starting to form in the same spot on the number 2 cylinder. Cleaned and applied JB Weld to both holes.
 

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Xsplicer26 - Keep us posted on how this works out.

What's the background on this engine? Have you owned it since new? The reason I ask is that I don't think you should get that kind of corrosion if regularly flushed with fresh water after each use. If you got it new, and flushed after each use, then I'm a bit concerned about my own '07. Thanks.

BTW - in regard to your other post. I have not personally used Salt Away on my Honda. In the past I used it annually on an old Crusader 220 I/O. I couldn't tell whether it did much good or not. That boat was destroyed in a hurricane and I never got the chance to pull the manifolds and risers to see. It did seem to keep the heat exchanger pretty clean.
 
I bought the boat and motor 2 1/2 years ago from someone in Florida and that person was the first owner. I know now that he did not take good care of the engine at all. He never had SB#56 done to it, even though he could have had it done for free from Honda. The engine was checked out by a marine mechanic and I received a report on it. Unfortunately there was nothing in the report about corrosion.
I have flushed the engine after every use since I have owned it.
When I did SB#56, I saw how terrible the anodes were in the exhaust manifold and that is when I realized that the original owner didn't flush much.
 
Roger that. Hopefully you lucked out and this engine will last you for a good while. Here's hoping.

I changed my manifold anodes at ~1500 hours, and they still had several hundred hours of life in them. All saltwater operation.

Just as an aside - one of the design flaws on the 200/225 IMO is that could have easily designed bolt-in anodes for the manifolds. That would have allowed for an easy change out and give you access ports for checking corrosion. I heard somewhere, maybe from Ian, that the new 225's have several additional internal anodes. Not sure where they are.

Ian? Can you enlighten us on where the additional anodes are located.
 
I am contemplating getting a new engine in the winter. Maybe get a good deal on a new engine at the boat show, of course, it all depends if this fix can get me thru the rest of this season.
 
I took the boat out this morning and it ran good, only thing I have to look at is that the idle is a little high. No water leaks.
i also installed a water temp gauge, thank you goes out to chawkman for the suggestion.
 
The V6 motors from AK1 and later have an additional 8 anodes. See
https://www.boats.net/catalog/honda...n-baej-1600001-to-baej-1699999/cylinder-block item 4, there are three down each bank of cylinders half obscured by the exhaust manifolds so that removal of the manifolds are still necessary to replace them, a little frustrating because these are much smaller anodes (same as the ones used on the portable range of motors) and don't last as long as the standard anodes in the manifolds. Then they have also added two more anodes in the water passage between the block and the mount case see item 5 on the same diagram which necessitates power head removal to replace them, recommended every 1000hrs by which time they are totally depleted if flushing is not done religiously.
 
Ian - thanks for that info.

I guess Honda finally realized they had a problem after 8 years on the market. But Jeez! Having to remove the power head to change anodes! That's really nasty (and stupid IMO!)

I once owned another C-Hawk with a Crusader 220 I/O in it. There were four big anodes in the manifolds - 2 on each side - that just bolted in. As long as you kept the threads lubed, you could easily inspect and/or replace them whenever they showed significant deterioration.
 
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