Honda Air Cooled Outboard - run it out of water??

[Richard10002]

Given that the Honda 4 stroke 2.3Hp outboard is air cooled, would it suffer any damage if it was run out of the water.

I know the prop spinning at thousands of revs migh chop someones head off, but would the outboard be damage - I'm thinking of a situation where you might start it up just to test that it starts.

 

[wiggy]

Allright short term but the exhaust will over heat eventually and you wont go very fast /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[FullCircle]

Richard,
I always start mine on the pushpit bracket to make sure its working before I lug it down the swim platform onto the tender.

 

[PetiteFleur]

It depends, the early ones had a water cooled exhaust but the more modern units are totally air cooled and can be safely run out of water(and they have a centrifugal clutch)

 

[Gin]

I eventually wrecked the gearbox on my secondhand BF2 of 1995 vintage as the bloke who sold it to me demonstrated it out of water as it was aircooled.

What he didn't know and what i found out the hard way is that those engines of that vintage were of two types.

One was entirely aircooled and provided it wasn't run for too long out of water then the leg gear / gearbox didn't overheat and transmit excessive heat up to the power head and damage the valves with disastrous results- that was not my problem though.

The second (later?) type was also an aircooled engine but the gearbox/leg required water cooling and had an impeller fitted in the lower part of the leg. This was my type and being ignorant of this, I and previous owner(s) probably ran the engine out of water too much and the shaft drive cog and gear pinion simply stripped themselves due to abuse

 

[Master_under_Dog]

The handbook is quite clear that it should only be run when the leg is immersed in water but I shouldn't have thought a few moments out of water would hurt unduly.

I ran mine in an old kitchen bin full of water. Amazing how quickly a bin can be emptied at half revs, and how far the water is dispersed!

Michael

 

[davidfox]

[ QUOTE ]
I ran mine in an old kitchen bin full of water. Amazing how quickly a bin can be emptied at half revs, and how far the water is dispersed!

[/ QUOTE ]


I found it best to do it on a freezing cold day with no dry clothes to hand.