New to me toy.

[THEFERMANATOR]

Got to take it out today for a shakedown run to see how she does. 1st noticeable drawback is how quiet the HONDA is, now I can't use the excuse that the engine is to loud to hear the wife talking. 2nd drawback is I wish this one had EFI. I cleaned the carbs THOUROUGHLY to say teh least running tip cleaners through every jet, syncing em when I put em on, and setting the idle speed with a digital tach in the water. It runs great once your up to 1500RPM's or more, but at idle it MUST be trimmed in till the engine is level for it to run smooth. It will run smooth as silk with the engien level or trimmed in, but trim the engien up to go shallow and she starts coughing and shaking on me. Trim it back in and clear it out, and she goes back to purring like a kitten. My GPS only worked for a few minutes before my batteries died(no power outlet installed yet), but at 3800 she cruises comfortably and flat, and was running right around 22-23 MPH. I've got a 4 blade prop on order for it to try out as she wants to run bow high until I get it up in the speed(I'm sure that 400 pound HONDA hanging off the stern don't help), hoping it will lift the stern up a bit better at slower speeds. I have to also put a steering cable in it as it is pretty good at idle, but at speed it gets pretty stiff. Not looking forward to changing it as this is one you have to pull the outboard off to change the cable out.

Hoping to get to take her out for a shakedown feeshin trip this weekend. Hoping the spanish macks are still off the beach waiting for me.

[spareparts]

sounds like the float level might be a tad too high

[THEFERMANATOR]

Originally Posted by spareparts

sounds like the float level might be a tad too high

1 of them was, but I set them all. I was BEYOND paranoid going through these things this time around. This engine has ALWAYS been a PAIN to sync the carbs on, and get it to run right. Trimmed down she purrs like a kitten, starts right up when I hit the key, trim it up and she's another story.

[spareparts]

lean sneeze or flooding out?

[THEFERMANATOR]

Originally Posted by spareparts

lean sneeze or flooding out?

It acts like it's flooding out, but I can open up the idle screws a touch(you only have about an 1/8 turn of adjustment in them) and it doesn't do it as bad when trimmed up. But trim it down and it definately loads up. This engine has ALWAYS been a pain, just figured it goes with these carbs I have read so many horror stories about online. Why HONDA felt they needed a 4 circuit carb instead of just adding an accelerator pump is beyond me.

[THEFERMANATOR]

I have to say one thing about this HONDA, it is pretty stingy with the fuel useage. Took it out most of the day SATURDAY fishing, and it ran for a good portion of it idling or trolling, then took it out again Sunday running on the river for 2 hours, and it still didn't even burn 8 1/2 gallons of gas. The 2 trips before that we took it out and ran for a good 30 minutes out to an island to go swimming, then ran offshore to do some trolling, ran 10 miles south to another beach, all the way back in, then ran up the ANCLOTE RIVER, and back to the river. Then I took it out another time where we ran down the WEEKI WACHEE RIVER and offshore a bit to look around, then ran all the way back up the river almost to the spring in the park, and looked at some houses off the side canals, and after those 2 trips it still didn't use but maybe 11 gallons of gas. I'm not burning much more fuel with the 75HP HONDA than my old 35HP JOHNSON did on the 16 foot jon boat going a heck of a site slower. It may have some quirks I really don't like(the main one being it weighs almost 400 pounds), but it is good on fuel. I've yet to use a full tank of fuel in 4 trips.

[THEFERMANATOR]

Well I got reminded why I DIDN'T want a fiberglass boat. When I took the boat out a little over a month ago, I ran across a rock bar trying to get back to a beach to let my son out to play. It initially looked like I got lucky and only hit the prop and a little of the skeg, so I replaced the prop and took it out Monday. When I got home I noticed a chunk of gel coat hanging loose, looked underneath, and seen my worst fears. I gouged up about a 2 foot section of the gel coat, with about a 4 inch section down into the glass. So I have spent all afternoon sanding out the old gel coat to bevel it back to accept a new coat, cleaning up the glass, and recoating it. It would have helped if I could have found some ge coat paste because of the depth of the gouging, but all I could get was gel coat finish. So 3 coats later, I'm now ready to sand it out flat, and hopefully finish sand it. The other catch was they were out of brown AND yellow tinting, so I now have a nice WHITE section on my hull bottom. I figured it was better to have a white section, than to allow it to wear into the fiberglass. Days like today make me remember why I LIKED having an aluminum jon boat, it just scratched up the bottom and kept going, not 6 hours of fiberglass and gel work to fix.