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BF 150 sluggish, low power.

J

Junk

New member
I have 2007 Honda BF150 with 400 hours on it. It's on an aluminum 20' Duckworth. I bought it used, and have only put about 10 hours on it. I started out with a14-1/2" diameter 19 pitch prop. The motor would rev to 5,500RPM. The dealer thought it was too much prop, since the boat wasn'tloaded down. We put 17 pitch on it, same diameter. This is wherethings stopped making sense. With the 17 pitch prop, the motor would runup to 5,500 RPM just like with the 19 pitch. The motor didn't sound likeit was working very hard, just wouldn't rev up any more. Speed dropped about5 MPH. I put the 19 pitch back on it. I verified the throttle wasopening, no slop in the cables, they are new. The next time out Ihad a long run up river. After about 4 minutes at WOTthe RPM's slowly started to drop off. In about 5seconds the engine speed dropped from 5,500 to 4,900 then heldthere. The problem repeated itself all day. Next I replaced thealready new canister fuel filter that was in the boat, and replaced the filterin the vapor separator on the motor, and the high pressure filter. Drained thewater separator (their wasn't any water in it). Took the boat back out. Now it can’t even get to 5,000 RPM with thesame load, although it stopped dropping RPM. I’ve ran it with the gas capoff, which didn't change things. I pressure tested the fuel transfer pumpon the motor. It made 10 PSI at idle and 8 PSI at WOT. I have alsotried unhooking the coils one by one, which made it really sick. When the dealer ran a diagnostic check, there were 10 overheating codes. One of them, my fault. Not enough water when flushing the motor. Also, according the ECM, the engine has never recorded anytime at wide open throttle. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
It sounds like your throttle cables might be out of adjustment. All of these larger Honda's seem to be sensitive to throttle cable adjustment. I don't have the specs or the procedures for doing that on the 150. If your 150 is like my 225, there are two cable cam wheels where the cables need to be adjusted and the throttle stop cam. Hopefully someone will chime in with the specs and procedures.
 
It seems pretty straight forward. With the motor off, I put the throttle lever all the way down and checked the position of the throttle plate. It was wide open. Is there more to it than that? The shop that installed the motor for me didn't do anything special. Just hooked up the cables and adjusted them. Thanks for the input.
 
Yes, that's correct 10 overheat codes. 2 of them were from me. Very soon after the beeping starts the motor shuts down, so it doesn't seem like you could do too much damage. Buyer beware I suppose. I bought it on consignment. The shop that sold it to me claimed they had done a compression check. I cant swear what the numbers were. I'm going to check the throttle cables again like CHawk 25 DLX suggest, just in case I'm missing something. It seams pretty straight forward though. With the engine off, I put the control lever all the way down and checked the position of the throttle plate. It was wide open. I pulled the injectors out yesterday so I can send them to Dr. Injector in my area. That was suggested by a couple people I know. Very easy to remove them, hopefully just as easy to put them back in. Thanks.
 
When an engine slows down and struggles to get to RPM after its warm? Have you checked your lower unit oil recently?
 
Good idea to check the lower unit as dunl suggested.

There is a specific procedure for checking and adjusting those throttle cables. I don't have it for the 150, but on the 225 it's a bit complicated and involves measuring and adjusting the distance between each cable stop bracket and the cable cam. Then adjusting the throttle plate and cam. You'll need the Helm shop manual for the complete procedure.
 
I checked the lower unit oil this morning. It looks good. I check it regularly since its a new to me motor. There is more backlash in the lower unit gears than I expected, but I don't have anything to compare it against, so maybe its normal. Also, checked the throttle linkage again. I made some small adjustments but probably not going to make a big difference. The fit between the post on the throttle plate, and the throttle cam has a lot of clearance. Looks Honda figured because of the throttle plate design, the last couple of degrees before fully open, and going past fully open wont make a difference, they left some clearance at the cam. Looks normal, and cant see it making a difference. I did adjust the linkage some just to make sure it opening far enough. Looks like if I go too far the throttle wont close all the way. Still waiting to get my injectors back. Thanks.
 
Just got news from the injector shop. Nothing wrong with them. Any more ideas on what to check? I will do some follow up on the throttle adjustment to make sure it correct, but a this point I don't think that's it. Has anybody had an intermittent coil problem? I know some modern cars get check engine lights from coils that faulter at high RPM only. Although I haven't had a trouble code for it yet, I wonder if one the coils miss firing at high RPM could be the problem.
 
barracuda88 said:
is it overheating in the water? or just on muffs
what top speed are you getting ?
Click to expand...

It overheated once with the muffs because I didn't have enough water flow from the spigot. When I 1st got the motor it would do 39 MPH @ 5,500 rpm. Now it struggles to do even get 34 MPH @ 4,900 rpm.
 
Could be due for valve clearance, or decarb with ring free treatment
i know I cleaned throttle body injectors fuel filters and pump
iac valve decarbed internal,new Ngk plugs valve clearance done new engine oil leg oil
still 5500 rpm max at 28 knot
although on big Heavy boat
It will over heat on muffs unless good water pressure
 
Good news, I found the problem. Today while trying to adjust the valves I found that you cant check the exhaust valve clearance with standard feeler gauges without removing the exhaust manifold. You just cant get them in there. So, you cant the exhaust manifold off without removing the V-TEC solenoid. Its held on the 3 bolts and sits just above the manifold. Anyway, once I removed solenoid I noticed there it screen inside. That screen was completely plugged! I cleaned it out and put everything back together. I did have to adjust the exhaust valves on the #2 cylinder. They were about .003" tight. Not bad, but I did adjust them. Took the boat out today, and what a difference. Now at wide open throttle it turns about 5,800 RPM and goes 44 MPH! Very happy, the best its ran since I got it. I cant believe there isn't anything in the Honda manual about cleaning that screen. I'm curious to see if anybody else has checked there screen, and if so, was it plugged. My motor has 400 hours on it.

Thanks for everybody's help.
 
Good news, I found the problem. Today while trying to adjust the valves I found that you cant check the exhaust valve clearance with standard feeler gauges without removing the exhaust manifold. You just cant get them in there. So, you cant the exhaust manifold off without removing the V-TEC solenoid. Its held on the 3 bolts and sits just above the manifold. Anyway, once I removed solenoid I noticed there it screen inside. That screen was completely plugged! I cleaned it out and put everything back together. I did have to adjust the exhaust valves on the #2 cylinder. They were about .003" tight. Not bad, but I did adjust them. Took the boat out today, and what a difference. Now at wide open throttle it turns about 5,800 RPM and goes 44 MPH! Very happy, the best its ran since I got it. I cant believe there isn't anything in the Honda manual about cleaning that screen. I'm curious to see if anybody else has checked there screen, and if so, was it plugged. My motor has 400 hours on it.

Thanks for everybody's help.
 
I think it would be very helpful to other 150 owners if you could pull up the appropriate parts diagram on boats.net and show folks exactly where that screen is located and part number. Probably would be best to start a new thread titled something like "Discovered hidden fuel screen on BF 150"
 
I'll see if I can figure out how to do that. I'm pretty new to the forum. To clarify, V-TEC solenoid controls oil flow, so its screening the oil that goes into the solenoid.
 
That's correct, the screen is part number 9 in the diagram. Now it seems like maybe my problems are not over. With the motor warmed up, after I leave the marina if I floor it, it will rev up to about 5,800 RPM or so and runs really good. But, after some cruzing around fishing (motor still warm) I doesn't seem to run as good. Last time out I could barely muster 5,200 RPM coming back in. The motor ran up to 5,800 rpm going out, but that was the only time it ran that good. I had done about the same thing the time before that. I'm scratching my head.
 
Tested VTEC solenoid per instructions in manual. It tested good, and no short circuits in the wiring that I could find. I did find that I have 3.5 to 3.8 volts all the time on the wire to the solenoid. I don't know if it should be 0 volts at idle, but it should have 12 volts or so above 4300 RPM according to the manual. Mine does not. Same voltage all the time. I revved it to 5,000 RPM in gear, volt meter never changed. Seems my ECM is faulty. Thank god Dave, at Cascade Marine in Everett Washington was kind enough to send me one that he had off a wrecked motor. Hopefully it works. The dealer wants $1,227.95 for a new one. No recall on mine. Has anybody had any luck taking their complaints to Honda on something like this? I don't recall if I mentioned it earlier, but when the ran the Honda Diagnostic System check, the report showed the motor had never logged even 1/10th of a minute at WOT. I wonder if the VTEC system ever worked. I'll let you all know if the ECM solves my problem.
 
Roger that. It's pretty rare for the ECM to go bad, but I guess some do. Also, the fact that it ran good part of the time sort of indicates to me there may be a loose connection somewhere.
 
What a mess. After messing around with the ECM off the wrecked motor, I've found that the ECM that came on my motor is not the original. Its off a newer (2009) counter rotation motor. I guess it was by mistake it was left on my motor when I bought it. The whole thing sounds fishy, and not in a good way. Anyway, I have been assured, the ECM off the wrecked motor might actually be the ECM that is supposed be on my motor. Waiting on my local Honda dealer to confirm. After I hooked it up, shortly after you start the motor (20 seconds), I get long beeps from the control box. No warning lights. It also does the same beeping if you just turn the key on and wait. Something to note, my outboard control has 4 lights on it, oil pressure, over temperature, battery, and check engine. The battery, and check engine lights have never came on, never. Not even when I first turn the key on. I'm hoping that's why I'm getting the beeping but couldn't confirm. My Honda manual said to test it at the P6 plug. I cant find that plug, so I've given up and taken it to the dealer. I'll post again when the dealer gets done with me. The motor idled fine when I started it, but I didn't want to take it not knowing.
 
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