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Honda BF50 sensor problem

Snapdragon III

New member
I am hoping for some good advice on getting my 2015 50HP Honda running properly. I bought the motor as part of the 13' tender on a larger trawler I purchased last year. It had been sitting for at least a couple years unused/broken down, in the tropics before I got it. It had a seized steering bar, and the high pressure fuel pump was corroded and seized, so it was not getting any fuel. I replaced those two parts and got it running pretty good, but I think I have a sensor related heat soak issue that I can't figure out. Here is a detailed description of the current problem.

After the work mentioned above, and new fuel, the motor starts and runs perfectly when it is cold. It will continue to run perfectly as it warms up, and everything is great. If you run it hard, then shut it down and park it at a dock, then come back about 30-40 minutes later, it will start right up, but if you give it more than about 1/4 throttle it will die immediately. If you let it run at idle, after 5-10 minutes, it will allow you to get up to 1/2-3/4 throttle before it dies, then another 5-10 minutes later it is back to running perfectly again. This is repeatable. I don't seem to be getting any check engine lights when this is happening. The conditions I was testing it in are winter/spring in Seattle area with cold water and air temperatures.

My theory is that one of the sensors is malfunctioning when it gets heated up past a certain temperature and gives an erroneous reading that causes the engine to die. It is not heating up from the engine running, but from the hot air inside the case when the hot engine is turned off. As the engine runs it draws cool air into the cover, and eventually cools the sensor off and everything works great again. The part I can't figure out is how to figure out which sensor might be causing this? I have not tried jumping the diagnostic port pins to flash error codes yet, but I assume I won't get anything that way since there is not check engine light? I did some googling for scan tools, but they all looked pretty expensive, of questionable quality, and require a windows computer which I don't have, so I would rather not go that route if I don't have to.

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Agree with your idea of heat soaking, but maybe a different take on the cause. MAYBE the fuel in the vapor separator is getting hot enough to vapor lock? On the side of the vapor separator is a heat exchanger of sorts, and my bet is it's there to handle the exact situation you offer.

See #9 here:

https://www.boats.net/catalog/honda...-bbej-1300001-to-bbej-1399999/vapor-separator

The thought is, if it becomes plugged, or maybe full of sand, water may not be flowing through it very well (if at all) and it's not going to work as designed. That's where I would start.... -Al
 
Agree with your idea of heat soaking, but maybe a different take on the cause. MAYBE the fuel in the vapor separator is getting hot enough to vapor lock? On the side of the vapor separator is a heat exchanger of sorts, and my bet is it's there to handle the exact situation you offer.

See #9 here:

https://www.boats.net/catalog/honda...-bbej-1300001-to-bbej-1399999/vapor-separator

The thought is, if it becomes plugged, or maybe full of sand, water may not be flowing through it very well (if at all) and it's not going to work as designed. That's where I would start.... -Al


Thank you. This is the type of help I am looking for. I had that thing all apart while changing the fuel pump inside of it, and I didn't notice any internal corrosion. It is possible I missed it, or reassembled it wrong, or the blockage is upstream or downstream of it. I will investigate further. I will see if I can get good enough access to it with a temp gun, or my finger to see if it is hot while I am having the problem. Do you know what temperature would be indicative that it might be hot enough to cause Vapor lock?
 
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Thank you. This is the type of help I am looking for. I had that thing all apart while changing the fuel pump inside of it, and I didn't notice any internal corrosion. It is possible I missed it, or reassembled it wrong, or the blockage is upstream or downstream of it. I will investigate further. I will see if I can get good enough access to it with a temp gun, or my finger to see if it is hot while I am having the problem. Do you know what temperature would be indicative that it might be hot enough to cause Vapor lock?

Not a clue on the temp, but good water flow through it should be easy to confirm?
 
Hi, I think Alan has probably put you on the right track with this because I'm pretty sure I have seen other posts here were that fuel cooler gets blocked for some reason. I have never worked on one but just what I've read.

However, if you can't find a block or cause there, I would think your theory of a skewed sensor might be worth investigating. Take a look at the Inlet Air Temperature (IAT) sensor. Item 7 in the link below:

https://www.boats.net/catalog/honda...-bbej-1100001-to-bbej-1199999/air-inlet-guide

Other sensors to be suspicious of might be the electronic air control valve....item 10 in the link below. Or, perhaps even the Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensor. Item 12 in the same link.


https://www.boats.net/catalog/honda...00001-to-bbej-1199999/inlet-manifold-injector

It is my opinion from years of working on fuel injected engines that any one of those things could possibly cause the symptoms you're seeing. I might even go as far as including a possible spark issue although as a last resort I believe.

The problem I would have is diagnosis without the Dr.H tool because I know of no reference available from Honda for return signal voltage values for those items. Those values might be found in their automotive side of things but I just don't know.

The good news is that MOST of those like sensors operate very similarly and it might not be too difficult for a determined individual with a quality DVOM to find a reading that is ridiculously wrong.

I wish you fair weather and good luck.
 
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Hi, I think Alan has probably put you on the right track with this because I'm pretty sure I have seen other posts here were that fuel cooler gets blocked for some reason. I have never worked on one but just what I've read.

However, if you can't find a block or cause there, I would think your theory of a skewed sensor might be worth investigating. Take a look at the Inlet Air Temperature (IAT) sensor. Item 7 in the link below:

https://www.boats.net/catalog/honda...-bbej-1100001-to-bbej-1199999/air-inlet-guide

Other sensors to be suspicious of might be the electronic air control valve....item 10 in the link below. Or, perhaps even the Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensor. Item 12 in the same link.


https://www.boats.net/catalog/honda...00001-to-bbej-1199999/inlet-manifold-injector

It is my opinion from years of working on fuel injected engines that any one of those things could possibly cause the symptoms you're seeing. I might even go as far as including a possible spark issue although as a last resort I believe.

The problem I would have is diagnosis without the Dr.H tool because I know of no reference available from Honda for return signal voltage values for those items. Those values might be found in their automotive side of things but I just don't know.

The good news is that MOST of those like sensors operate very similarly and it might not be too difficult for a determined individual with a quality DVOM to find a reading that is ridiculously wrong.

I wish you fair weather and good luck.

Thanks for the detailed reply. I am hoping to have the boat back in the water tomorrow and will start chasing these ideas.
 
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