Honda advice Southampton

Jacob555 · 11 May 2015, 14:21

I've got a BF30 with problems. Been looked at by idiots so far and been taken to bits a few times by the look of it. (chewed up bolts, pipes off, gasket goo everywhere, had wrong plugs in it etc.) Runs on two, sparks on all 3, good compression but I've cleaned the carbs- it's not that.
Timing may be well out- it runs on for 10 seconds when I switch it off- or could be a wiring/ control box fault?)
The original fault for which it was dismantled twice for (by various numpties in the west country) was it was cutting out when warm, so even when I get it running on 3 it's still going to have this problem, although it is sitting suspiciouly high on the transom so it might have just been cooling with frothy water and getting warm and cutting out. The previous owner of the engine provided me with a full saga, but suffice to say the people who looked at it were of the general Devon boatyard (moorings, antifouling, special prices for non-locals) sort, not outboard specialists.
I'm looking for somebody to take a look at it for a couple of hours workshop time max but don't want to go the main dealer route. (Once I know what's wrong it will be second hand bits to fix if at all possible).
I don't initially want charging for gaskets (which i know it needs), plugs which it has just had, compression test which has been done 3 times already. so a tech who will LISTEN to me when I tell the story of what has been done so far- not just start from the beginning. And definitely not one who will tear it apart, fail to fix it then return it to me in bits and provide me a large bill for the privilege. At the moment it looks mint and runs on 66.6% of its cylinders so has a significant value as is.

I've paid scrap money for it- just want to make double sure it's not fixable before I move it on as a runner with faults.

Anyone able to suggest anyone in the Southampton area preferably with Honda diagnostics that is likely to be able to get to the bottom of this one in a couple of hours?

Nos4r2 · 11 May 2015, 14:45

I think you're going to struggle with that.

Not trying to be flippant, but I wouldn't be working on a motor with that many restrictions on what I did with it.

Jacob555 · 11 May 2015, 19:06

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for somebody doing diagnostics on an engine to a) not check or replace unnecessary consumables or things that have already been checked and replaced before and b) understand that the customer wants only a couple of hours workshop time spending on it and c) wants it back running no worse than it was, even if it can't be fixed.
Anybody got any suggestions of anyone local to Southampton who might be worth a try with this?

Poly · 11 May 2015, 19:27

C is reasonable, B is fine but it might well rule out C and A assumes that the people you have called numpties knew what they were doing.

ShinyShoe · 13 May 2015, 21:51

There must be a garage out there who will charge you two hours labour, do nothing, and therefore return it no worse than it went in and then say "cut ur losses"...

66% of cylinders does not equate to significant value in my book...

A1an · 13 May 2015, 22:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShinyShoe

..

66% of cylinders does not equate to significant value in my book...

its still worth a couple of hours spanner time, as long as it has good compression (which the OP says it has).

Can't be that difficult to trace the problem, its either fuelling or electrical.

What I would say though is any tech worth his salt will want to start with basics, its part of fault finding, the OP should be prepared to pay for this.

spartacus · 13 May 2015, 22:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by A1an

What I would say though is any tech worth his salt will want to start with basics, its part of fault finding, the OP should be prepared to pay for this.

+1

An outboard master tech will have a nose for fault finding. When I had issues with my Tohatsu he went back to basics. 2 hours later it was sorted. If it was me I'd still be in the garage tinkering.

Nos4r2 · 14 May 2015, 14:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by A1an

What I would say though is any tech worth his salt will want to start with basics, its part of fault finding, the OP should be prepared to pay for this.

That's what I was alluding to.

You can't start a job halfway through using basic information from someone who's already said they don't know what the issue is.

If you knew what the issue is you'd have fixed it, so your basic information is wrong somewhere.