2014 BF150 first overheating, now low oil pressure alarm

Long story on this, try to keep it short: Twin 150's, use for pleasure, hunting, commercial salmon troll in SE Alaska. 788 hours on both, swap engines while trolling to keep hours down/even. Keep all maintenance up, marine diesel mech/welder by trade, so not lost under the hood. The electronics being what they are, and unable to find a DTC tool for this year/model is frustrating. Set valve lash on time, change thermostats per the schedule, impellers, etc..

Headed out to fish last Friday and lost power while on plane, could tell port engine was lagging...pull back throttles and port engine stalls. Scroll through menu on combo tach, temp gauge says 242 degrees! Panic, only imagine that I've warped a head (previous power was twin 130's, unbeknownst wrapped kelp on intake and smoked the starboard engine in 2014). Pull dipstick, all good. Cruised back to port on starboard and by time I got there the temp was down to 170 so tried to restart. Ran fine, temp came down further, so figured a stuck thermostat (had 89 hours on current stats), so called dealer in Sitka and ordered two sets and had them air freighted over to not miss more days on the water. Replaced and ran in driveway fine.

Go fishing Sunday and all seems norm...run to spot to fish, 30 minute ride, and pull back throttles...port engine had crept up over 200 again...idling comes down under 165...fished all day. Return to port had to continue to slow down to allow to cool, then back up to plane, etc...long trip home.

Go fishing Monday and same thing, after confirming Sunday night thermostats were operating as designed with a thermometer and hot water. All good. On return to port Monday, engine stalls when pulling back to N. Alarm goes off before it dies, no indicator which alarm. Shut down, restarts fine.

Pull lower unit, replace impeller with new one, hook up a sump pump, pull thermostats, and back flush with salt away and 10 gallons water for 5 hours. Reinstall everything, shunt out the data plug (another thread here suggested) and did the key click counting flashes...confusing flashes. One long, 2 short. One long 5 short. One long 7 short? Maybe? Cleared them, no new codes. Run engine with lower unit back on, and idles fine. Take up to 1600 rpm, all seems great. Cycle throttle up over 2000, reach 3000 and hold for 5 seconds or so, bring back down and low oil pressure alarm goes off. WTF! Shut down, restart, no alarm. Shunt data plug, no code.

Completely at a loss. Have tested both ECT's, ohm'd out normal for cold water hot water best I can tell. Haven't done anything with the oil pressure sensor/sending unit.

ANY help is greatly appreciated!

Just a guess but this sounds like this could be an intermittent open in either the sensor circuit reference voltage or the signal ground.

You can start a process of elimination by simply checking your battery and battery switching connections. Something as simple as a loose, corroded cable end or switch contact can interrupt power or ground and make the computer go crazy.

If that checks out then maybe going over engine grounds and using contact cleaner on easily accessible plug connectors might help. Check the fuses for fit and corrosion too.

I don't have any code documentation for these otherwise I would share it with you.

Hopefully someone else here has some better ideas on what to look for.

Good luck.

I did not even think about that as an option, thank you! Mechanics 101. I can imagine this is very probable, considering every hour has been in salt.
Appreciate the time and suggestion.

Oil pressure is easy to check, remove the oil pressure sender and install a mechanical gauge, pressure at idle should be 80psi cold and above 20psi hot.

Is the sending unit under the intake 'manifold' on the port side of the engine? Looks like it when I peer through the plastic flutes.

Per your advice jgmo, I pulled the air intake plenum and unbolted the 3 block grounds located there. The two on the starboard side had quite a noticeable amount of corrosion on them, especially the top one. Cleaned up with a Dremel and wire wheel, used a liberal amount of dielectric grease on them and reinstalled. Took all connections off the port battery, the ground lug...cleaned everything and regreased. Only corrosion I saw was on those three posts to the block. Did I miss any other block grounds?
If the weather lets up will go run in the open water this week and see. Might be my imagination but seemed to run better in the driveway....

Well, i can't answer about ALL the grounds as I haven't worked on a 150 Honda but I would suggest finding the main battery cable ground end in the engine bay and clean that connection too along with the positive cable end at the starter. Sounds like you did well though cleaning those three and I am a BIG FAN of the wire Dremel wheel method myself.

As for the oil sender, it appears to be screwed into the side of the block near the water temp sensor. See items 15 and 16 in the parts page link below.

https://www.boats.net/catalog/honda...hp/bf150ak2-xca-2007-and-later/cylinder-block

Again, no specific knowledge or SI from working on this outboard but since your complaints are regarding water temperature and oil pressure "anomalies" It could very well have something to do with the sensors especially since they are mounted so close to one another. My question would be do they share the same wiring harness sheath and could doing some wiggle testing make anything jump up and say "here I am"!

While cleaning those large cable connections might sound nonsensical because the engine cranks and starts, many times that's where OEM's attach other eyelets and lugs for smaller gauge wires.

Good luck.

High and low pressure oil senders are next to the. oil filter

Yeah, you need to follow Ian's advice. He works on these things for a living.
I was just going by the parts illustration but obviously something has changed between 2007 and 2014? It would be nice if boats.net could make their info more current but I guess that's pretty RICH coming from an old timer:>)

Although I do hope that the price of an oil sender for your outboard ISN'T $323 any longer!!!

Man O Man!

I appreciate everyones advice on this. I have a shop manual on CD I bought on Ebay out of Canada, and it shows the part numbers you mentioned from boats.net, and mine are definitely not in that location. I'm going to take a photo of the oil filter on the starboard side... and the only ECT's I see are on the side of the thermostat housing on the top of the block. One on each thermostat, but haven't seen anymore on the engine.

Ian, is it possible that my engines are 2015's and they moved? Shop sold them to me as 2015's but the bank told me via the serial numbers that they were 2014's. I don't know, I know I need to go to Honda school!

I thought you were looking for the oil pressure sensor.There are 4 temp sensor, two on top by the thermostats, one below the O2 sensor and one under the alternator,

Ian, you're correct I was. Looking at the starboard side of my block by the oil filter I don't see any sensors. The parts illustrations on my CD and what jgmo referenced doesn't look the same as mine...there are no wire plugs going to any sensors. I also didn't realize that there are 4 temp sensors...wonder if one of the other ones were causing my overheating with no alarm. Thank you both for the advice and assistance.

Haven't ran it under load yet. Will see what happens when I do.

Damn modern engines. An old Jimmy or mechanical Cat just doesn't have all this fangled fancy crap. Ha!

And I’m an idiot, now see the oil pressure sensors.
Ran under load today, took 5 minutes and the gauge (and gauge on Lowrance HDS 10 via NMEA network) said the engine was overheating, climbs right past 200 degrees). Runs seemingly perfect at dock, 1200-4300 rpm…no issues. Pull throttle back to see if cools down and the low oil pressure alarm goes off. Shut down, restart within seconds alarm goes back off. Bring home, flush engine running in driveway and within 2 minutes oil pressure alarm goes off.
Whatever the problem is sure seems to be electrical, not mechanical. Trying to figure out how to screw in a manual gauge to check oil pressure. Assuming bottom is high pressure, 3 wire sensor.
For what it’s worth, used an IR thermometer on top of and side of block when gauges said it was running hot..140 or so at thermostat housing, 180 side of block below alternator.

I don't believe this is electrical, you have a problem. Screw a mecanical gauge into the low oil pressure sensor, it's the one with the standard small tapered thread. Cold at idle should be 80psi, hot no less than 20psi.

Going to my shop to grab one now. Thank you for the quick responses.

And of course the mechanical gauge I grabbed isn’t the correct thread.

I did figure out the light flash error codes: 2 long, 2 short. 2 long, 4 short. 2 long, 7 short. Anyone have the secret decoder ring?

Those equate to 22, 24 and 27.They dpn't exist. Try clearing the codes, run the engine again and check for new codes if the check eng light illuminates

Sorry, they relate to temp sensors, you must have disconnected them with the ignition turned on, clear and re run as mentioned previously

You’re correct, I did in fact run it with the top two sensors for temp disconnected (at the thermostat housing). Cleared those codes, ran it on the water and was able to get a new code to show up: 2 long 5 short. I did not go above 2000 rpm on it but did run it about an hour…shut it down, restarted an hour later and got a low oil pressure alarm (hence the code?). Shut it down, restarted and no alarm. Now in the driveway the Check Engine Alarm is flashing on my tach, first time for it.
A long time diesel mechanic friend (I need to know more outboard mechanics!) yesterday suggested that since I have two engines sitting there that are otherwise identical (port is counter rotation), to swap the ECM’s and see if the issue follows it. Two plugs two bolts easy idea. Checked starboard before doing so and now it has a code: 1 long 4 short. Runs fine, never an alarm.
Both seem right as rain sitting in the driveway. Also, finally found the main ground lug in the harness under the bundle coming into the cowling and it had corrosion but not terrible. Cleaned it up and dielectric greased it.

On another note: pics of schematics and photos of location found on the web show a different engine under the hood than mine! I have a large one piece fuse box with relays, there is only one oil pressure sensor that I can find. Found all 4 temp but the oil filter housing does not have a sensor in it. Also changed to a genuine 4x the money Honda oil filter before running it last time.

Your motor does have a different fuse box to the pre 2011 motors. The sensors are in tge same location apart from the top two temp sensors.. There are a high and low pressure sensors next to the oil filter on all years. Testing in the drive way doesn't prove anything, you need to ru them under load and at operating tempwhich is only achieved after about 10mins under load

So an update to my outboard issue: Spoke with a guy that at one time owned the Honda shop locally...he suggested the thrust washers are gone, and that Honda has had this issue for a while now. I had heard of the 225's (V6's) and some issues, but not the 4 cylinders. He gave me some tolerances to check, and a quick runout in the rainstorm revealed a shade over .100" of axial movement, or some .096" over the minimum, and .086" over the maximum he suggested. It's very easily seen with the eye the amount of runout. So I drained the oil, took a sample and have it sent to a lab for analysis. I cut the filter and the media was twice as dark as the starboard engine (both had 24 hours on fresh oil changes) and there was definite flake/sparkle in the oil in the bottom of the filter can. No large chunks, but a 49er would be excited if it were gold color.
Looks like a power head swap is going to happen, and probably put these up for sale as soon as it's right and tight again. 788 hours is not a lot of time on well maintained engines, and it makes me kind of sad and of course angry. Yamaha has always had a soft spot in my heart and they are starting to dominate the water here, seemingly for good reason.

I'm almost certain your motor should have max ,018" end float. They increased end float to .080" in about 2016, you will know if your end float should be .080 by the fact that you have to remove the lower unit to check it. There is a spring loaded plunger in the crank that is compressed by the drive shaft to alleviate pressure on the thrust washer. And yes, the 135s and 150s were also susceptible to thrust washer failure which was why I suggested you hook up a mechanical oil pressure gauge to physically check your oil pressure

Final update to the issues I encountered on the 150...ordered a short block in August of 2021. Got it 3 weeks ago. Long time to have $5000 spent and waiting. Pulled the engine apart this past week. Found the upper thrust washer between the cases, under the oil pump, chewed up and showing zero rational wear. Talked to the dealer I bought the short block from and he said they find a lot of them there, likely thrown on initial start up or shortly thereafter. I asked if Honda knew this was happening, how the hell did they not issue a recall, or extend a warranty. Is an owner supposed to drop 30 grand and then immediately do a runout test on the crank to see if they have all their parts intact? I have some photos will upload soon.

Oil analysis was funny: Showed large amounts of various metals, could be indicative of break in. Ha! Not at 788 hours. BROKEN.

As a long time fan of the Honda twins, I have thought favorably about Honda in general and would consider their products at the top of my list should I be in the market for something.

Oh, I realize that almost nothing is perfect when it comes to machinery and Hondas do have well known issues such as the O2 sensor failures on the older V-6's right down to the annoying little things I have found on my beloved BF20D. But none of those things are engine killers or deal and bank account breakers.

Be it outboard, auto or motorcycle, I have always thought that I would check out what Honda had to offer first before making a purchase.

But your report is VERY disappointing to me and, as you say, why didn't Honda take action to protect their customers since they appear to have been fully aware that this was an ongoing problem?

Sad indeed.

Yup, I'm not impressed. When I tear down the old block to investigate further, I'll post photos of the failures.

What are you considering for "break in" oil after all this? Has there been any "updates" on these blocks to help mitigate this disaster?

The dealer I bought the short block from said that there was a period of model years that had the thrust washer issue..and that most folks don't know the condition until it becomes difficult or impossible to shift, as the thrown washer gets into the linkage between the oil pump and transom cases. But, if it's out of warranty, I guess it's tough cookies. I wasn't talking with just a mechanic at the dealer, but the owner. He said they encountered and pursued quite a few as a warranty issue, and a few out of warranty. Guess who had to pay for the work?
Break in oil will be standard non synthetic, 10W30 as recommended, unless you have a better suggestion. I'll change it at 20-25 hours and then sell the boat.

Update on the old block: Took off the balancer on the bottom of the block yesterday, and its very obvious the crank had rubbed the main 'caps' excessively. When I removed the crank pulley early on, the crank case had a wear ring in it from the crank walking up and down with the excessive runout, and the crankshaft position sensor had a large burr of melted plastic from the rubbing of the pulley.

Currently waiting on a shipment of the Threebond 1280B equivalent sealant to put the crank case cover and chain cover back on the new block. Gotta love shipping these days.

No, I have no recommendation on the oil.

Just a couple of reminders though:

Always bring the engine up to temp.
Vary the speed often.
No full throttle for at least the first couple of hours.

During break in, lots of folks will have trouble doing the second item...varying engine rpm.

While most can resist going full throttle, many (including myself) have a tendency to run at constant speed on a large lake or at sea. So, don't forget to change speed often at first.

Good luck.

Your new block will come with a spring and plunger to fit behind the drive uo on the flywheel. This reduces load on the thrust washers and greatly reduces failures. Stick to non synthetic oils, you can upgrade to 25W40 if you want tho not necessary

Original break in was a pain in the butt but I remember doing it and will do the same with this new block. It did come with the spring and all is installed as I build. Anyone know if the other manufacturers have had any of these problems? Every non boat mechanic all agree this is ridiculous issue to have. New engines should never throw a thrust washer at initial start up, and if they do, then a complete reengineering should happen and the manufacturer should warranty/repower the block with the update free of charge. Defective Pinto.