Is the difference between 40/50hp negligible or significant?

[taylormade]

I'm looking at three at the moment and I'm hoping to pull the trigger this week. They all have their own bugaboos and pros and cons, but one has a 40hp Honda. The other two have the BF50 engine and they're all around the same hours. All things being the same (care and maintenance), am I going to notice a big difference in 10hp on the Mac?

Thanks in advance.

[captronr]

Unless top speed at WOT is important to you, probably not a big deal. A number of X's have 10-40 HP engines and do fine.

I have heard (and you'd need to check it out for yourself) that some of the mfgers use the same engine for 40, 50, or 60 and adjust the motor to obtain the specific HP. A check of weights might aid in that search.

I have a TLDI Tohatsu 50 with both fuel and oil injection (2 cycle) and it's performed flawlessly for 8 yrs. Nice thing about 2 stroke, don't have to change engine oil. New one are almost smoke free as well. WOT on this one (loaded for cruising) is about 16mph. Typically, you will go WOT for a bit, then throttle back to 3/4 or so to quiet it down and improve fuel burn.

Hope this helps.

Ron

[dxg4848]

It depends on how you are going to use your boat. If you are a day sailor (like myself) and use outboard to dock, launch/retrieve, get around marina, etc. then there is no difference if you have 40 or 50 hp.

If you plan to pull your kids on wake board, or long term cruising then go with more hp.

I have 60 hp and used to pull my son on wake board and it was a lot of fun. Now my son grew up and I added some heavy mods in bow area (marine AC, chain locker with 100 ft of chain, refrigerator, two additional batteries for 24V trolling motor, windlass) and won't be able to go as fast any way. 99% I run my outboard at 2K - 2.5K RPM to go 5 - 6 knts.

Some people have 90 hp motors and love them.

So again it all depends on what you need you outboard for.

[bobbob]

Can you get up on a stable plane (or as close as a Mac gets) with the ballast in with only 40hp? I think you can with a 50hp.

[Bilgemaster]

Unless top speed at WOT is important to you, probably not a big deal. A number of X's have 10-40 HP engines and do fine.

I have heard (and you'd need to check it out for yourself) that some of the mfgers use the same engine for 40, 50, or 60 and adjust the motor to obtain the specific HP. A check of weights might aid in that search.

I have a TLDI Tohatsu 50 with both fuel and oil injection (2 cycle) and it's performed flawlessly for 8 yrs. Nice thing about 2 stroke, don't have to change engine oil. New one are almost smoke free as well. WOT on this one (loaded for cruising) is about 16mph. Typically, you will go WOT for a bit, then throttle back to 3/4 or so to quiet it down and improve fuel burn.

Hope this helps.

Ron

...Maybe Wide Open Throttle?

[frede]

Honda shows them as being the same except (except for the horsepower )

http://marine.honda.com/outboards/compa ... /BF40,BF50

[Tomfoolery]

Honda shows them as being the same except (except for the horsepower )

http://marine.honda.com/outboards/compa ... /BF40,BF50

My owners manual says BF40/BF50 on the cover, with specs for both inside, and my service manual says BF35A/BF45A on it. Just to confuse things even further.

But I haven't compared the two to see what's different. Could be carbs (or removable jets), and/or cam, and/or ignition. Don't know, I'm afraid.

[taylormade]

I appreciate the answers and the discussion! So I don't typically ever run WOT even in my powerboats... just never seemed like a good idea to me, but I WOULD like to get on plane. I suppose trimming could assist with that right?

How will we be using this? Good question!! I'm buying it because it's time I grow up, ha. I've owned two bowriders, three wakeboard inboard boats (still have on 05 Mastercraft in fact), and a center console bay boat for fishing and it's time to learn how to sail and explore a little further. I'll keep the bay boat for fishing, sell the wakeboard boat and enjoy the X for many a year I believe. The bay boat has a great big casting deck which is great for fishing, but no so great for the Admirals and friends who come over and want to go out for a sunset cruise.

While the is a little cramped, I can see us putting four or five in the cockpit comfortably. At least I hope so. We live on a river that goes to Tampa Bay so a lot of our time will be piddling around at idle speed or close to it, but there'll be times where we want to go over to St Pete for the night and I look forward to being able to do so at 15-20kph on the way there and putting up the sails on the way back and taking our time.

[bobbob]

If you want to get up on a stable plane, IMO exclude the 40.

[dlandersson]

Heck, you can with 30 HP.

As noted previously, a 30-50 HP Merc is the same engine. All you need to do is "flash" the digital module and you have an upgrade

Can you get up on a stable plane (or as close as a Mac gets) with the ballast in with only 40hp? I think you can with a 50hp.

[bobbob]

Engines with the same block can in theory be retimed to provide the same horsepower as the top model, but there is a high likelihood that some parts in the lower models are not rated for the same level of wear and tear, and therefore the possibility to prematurely age the engine.

If there were dual outboards I might take the chance that one fails. With a single outboard there is no way I would personally take that risk.

[Bilgemaster]

Honda shows them as being the same except (except for the horsepower )

http://marine.honda.com/outboards/compa ... /BF40,BF50

My owners manual says BF40/BF50 on the cover, with specs for both inside, and my service manual says BF35A/BF45A on it. Just to confuse things even further.

But I haven't compared the two to see what's different. Could be carbs (or removable jets), and/or cam, and/or ignition. Don't know, I'm afraid.

You know, Freed and Tomfoolery are right, if you check out this June 2002 comparison chart of the Honda BF40/BF50 Specifications on the Honda website, except for the "Full Throttle RPM Range" and "Rated Power" entries, everything else looks identical. This was certainly the case with the little Tohatsu 2.5 hp 2-stroker on my other sailboat. It is identical in every way to the 3.5 hp, except for a restrictor plate intentionally put into the intake manifold and a shorter slot for its throttle arm to bring down the horses to meet power limitations on some inflatables and for tax purposes in several countries. Pull out that restrictor plate and cut a little notch in the cover for the throttle arm to fully travel, and your 2.5 becomes a 3.5 hp. It may be more complicated with the far more complicated Honda, but then it might not be THAT complicated. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that there's a guide to doing it (at one's own risk, naturally) somewhere "out there," but I haven't come across it yet.

[sailboatmike]

IMHO I think a significant issue is resale value, obviously the 40Hp is a cheaper motor and is considered non standard for the boat so I would imagine that the perceived value of the boat would be significantly reduced with the smaller motor.

So it comes down to how much cheaper the 40Hp is than the 50Hp, even if they are the same motor for all intents and purposes, if it was a 50 or 60Hp motor then I dont see much difference but I can see that 40Hp to 50Hp being a perceived large difference after all it is 20% down.

There was a Tattoo 26 for sale here with a 40Hp on the back and it struggled to sell while other older boats at around the same price with 50Hp on the back sold

[Signaleer]

I'm looking at three at the moment and I'm hoping to pull the trigger this week. They all have their own bugaboos and pros and cons, but one has a 40hp Honda. The other two have the BF50 engine and they're all around the same hours. All things being the same (care and maintenance), am I going to notice a big difference in 10hp on the Mac?

Thanks in advance.

I have a 90 HP on an and I would love to have a 115HP.

Unless you are going to be sailing alone, without the mast, always unballasted, you will not be happy with a 40 hp, and probably not with the 50 hp. With any load both motors can have trouble planing.

The minimum I'd recommend is a 75, prefer a 90, and I'm dreaming of 100+.

I have some video's that will show you what a will do with a 90 when I was demasted. https://youtu.be/ESAfJrVXg8A

Ed.

[taylormade]

Ok, well for the record, I've purchased for 40hp model as I was able to negotiate a full $5k between it and the two other 50hp models. In addition, the 40hp has a new aluminum tandem axle trailer, while the others have the single axle steel trailers, so I'm comfortable in that price and if I end up having to purchase a 60hp down the road, i'll be ok with it. In fact, my bay boat has a 115 that I feel may be a little undersized, so I may buy the 150 for it and move over the 115. That'd be quite the site, huh? Ha.