De-restricting a Honda O/B

[robp]

Hi all. Hope some of you might be able to help a raggie with a power question? I'll try and be brief! To cut a long story short I bought a BF 15 in France (at Honda's suggestion) because I needed a 15HP but with power lift, which strangely isn't available over here and no one was willing to order. Apparently the 15 and 20 are the same motor, with the 15 HP being restricted. Now we've changed our RIB from one rated at max 15HP to one rated at min 20HP, I'd like to de-restrict mine. I've tried calling Honda (just in the past couple of days) but they're not available. Does anyone know if this is easy or even possible for an owner to do? Cheers Rob

 

[Nick_H]

There was a post on this recently. You'll get no joy from Honda, as they price the 20 higher even though there's little or no increase in manufacturing cost (same as all other outboard makers).

I'd suggest a good independant outboard engineer is your best option.

 

[robp]

Thanks Nick. Thinking you're probably right I called the local guy who knows his stuff and he thinks inlet manifold, full set of jets or maybe even carb and exhaust tube. So it's not just a "chip" as I had optimistically hoped! Moral is, never buy a RIB without a sea trial..