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Well I've finally broken in the new Honda and I must say I'm very happy with it. The motor is very quiet and smooth. I basically just hear the tell tail peeing when I troll. It starts like a Honda Civic, no surprises. Fuel economy is amazing, I went 37 miles today from Great Bay to the Isles of Shoals in NH and back. According to the fuel gauge I burnt a little over 1/8 of a tank.
With the 17 x 13 1/4 Honda Solas prop I have reached 40.2 GPS mph on the lake at 6100. Today in the Ocean with two people and fishing gear I hit 42 mph running with the current. About the only area my old Evinrude beats this motor is time to plane. The 90 Ocean Pro would plane the hull in the blink of an eye and the Honda takes a couple of seconds.
If it sounds like I love my new motor its because I do. It makes this boat an absolute joy to run.
Honda's are good engines but they can be heavy for Classic Whalers.
I can see why you chose to put a smaller 90hp on your boat.
90hp Honda = 359 pounds
115hp Honda = 478 pounds
That is a HUGE difference in weight between what power is suggested on that boat and what you decided to put on that boat.
Too bad the 90hp and the 115hp didn't weigh the same or very close to being the same.
Looks good and no matter what, if you are happy with it, that is all that matters.
I went with a 90 HP primarily due to the weight of the current crop of 115's. For instance the Honda is 478 LBS as you pointed out, but the others aren't exactly feather weights either. Both the Merc and Evinrude DI two strokes come in at 375 LBS sans oil tank. The Yamaha, Suzuki and Merc 115 four strokes weigh right around 400 LBS. When the 17 Outrage I was designed OMC's 120 looper weighed in at 363 LBS. I'm sure the designer (Dougherty) didn't envision much more weight hanging off the stern given this models adversity to stern weight.
As for picking the Honda 90, I have a very good dealer local to me. The only dealers around me that gave me the warm and fuzzy feeling were Honda and Yamaha. In the end I felt the Honda 90 was the best choice for me. It is the second lightest four stroke 90 available at 359 LBS. It has BLAST to advance timing and fuel delivery during acceleration, lean burn control between 3000 and 4000 rpm to increase fuel economy, and VTEC above 5000 rpm to increase top end performance. It all seems to work as advertised and it came with a 5 year non-declining factory warranty too boot. I'm happy!
Saumon,
The motor was mounted one hole up, although it would seem that two holes up would have been better.
Phil,
The motor was rigged by Great Bay Marine in Newington N.H. They did a great job. They do not sell boats, they specialize in re-powers and sell quite a few Honda's. They rigged both the Newington and Hampton Fire boats with Hondas as well as their own McKee craft work boats. They let me check out one of their work boats with a BF90D and hydraulic steering before I signed on the dotted line. That boat runs all day every day and was set up perfectly. I suppose that was a great sales pitch.
I made a short video of the BF90D doing a top speed run. It is not a great video but it shows this combo is an honest 40 mph set up. The run was with approx. 25 gallons of fuel and all my fishing gear, down riggers etc. It was taken on lake Winnipesaukee. Top speed per GPS today was 41.8 mph.
