John,
Thank you for your reply. If you have a minute to read a response, read on, if not thanks for the part numbers. I greatly appreciate your help.
I purchased a catamaran with twin 2003 hondas on the boat hoping they would be serviceable as they have only 250 hours and no overheat, over anything codes when examined on the computers. I bought the boat for the hull, the motors were bonus.
I shipped the boat from Florida back home to Alaska. I live in a remote area, close to Juneau and after running the boat from Juneau home pulled it out of the water to change the plugs and impellers on as one engine had developed irregular knocking at idle and wouldn't make top rpm. Having sat in the florida sun I expected 10 year old impellers would need changing. I called the local Honda dealer in Juneau to inquire first about plugs, $30.00 a pop for the NGK irridium models. Said have a nice day and called Napa, $14.50 each for the same. Since the original post have found the website associated with the message board as the best source of original Honda parts at a fair price.
Ordered plugs and began to remove the lower units to change impellers. Wow did I get some surprises. Between the two engines, four of the bolts wouldn't even turn. One had already been mostly snapped off and broke under the force of an end wrench. Pulled the cowlings off of the sides of the housing over the intermediate shaft bearing and found what was left of the bearing and its captive housing in pieces in the shroud. Big hole in the casing around the bearing, had been that way for a long time. Shaft was well pitted and scored with lots of oxidation/corrosion in surrounding metal.
Inspected the other engine and found casing still intact. Finally got both units off and found that on the motor with the intact casing the intermediate bearing had to be destoyed to be removed and was close to melting down and ruining casing as well. Shaft was in the same shape as motor with broken casing. Unfortunately, one of the lower unit bolt housings is cracked along two sides most of the way up and so both housings will need to be replaced, doesn't look too hard but again, a surprise.
I have only run Yamahas up to this point and on my 1986 2 stroke can still pull the engine apart with socket set and there is hardly a spec of corrosion to be found, 4 months of summer use in Alaska for 25 years, I just didn't expect anything different with a Honda.
It has been my experience with diesel motors that there are many companies that make quality oil filters that have allowed me thousands of hours of reliable service without paying two to three times the price for original Caterpillar or John Deere branded parts. Wondered if there were the same available for Honda. Apparently not and that is fine.
As the motors are ten years old and have obviously received little to no maintenance in that time, I guess the thought of using a less expensive oil filter didn't seem to be such a big deal.
As I will have to replace the intermediate housings on both engines, the shaft bearings, and upgrade the exhaust tubes while I'm at it I expect I'll order a few of the Honda oil filters along with the extra nuts and bolts I'll need to get the engines running and operating to the level of reliability I need.
Having lived all my life in Alaska I am well versed in the procurement of parts and goods from the comfort of my gluteus maximus, do it on an almost daily basis. Just new to Honda is all and still a little green.
I guess I didn't associate having to disassemble and service the lower units and bearings every 200 hours to keep them from melting down and/or seizing up, or greasing the threads on the spark plugs to keep them from seizing into the heads in a season because exhaust water back siphoned into the exhaust manifolds, etc. with "quality".
Have found some great help here from a couple of forum members, including yourself, the PB Blaster tip has saved me a ton of time already. Looking forward to getting the engines up and running and keeping them so.
Thank you again for your reply
Kind Regards,
Shawn
for something I could do in my garage..