Older 10hp Honda BF100 motors?

[loosescrew]

I went with a buddy this morning to pickup a tractor he bought off some guy up in PA. The guy had a 500ft long building full of everything from furniture to fire trucks. The place was packed. He said he used to do auctions and he bought the building as a place to keep the stuff he bought. I walked around for a bit and spotted a row of Honda 7.5 and 10hp outboards. All older all the same length somewhere between a 15 and 20" transom size. Most of them looked like new motors a few had missing parts but none looked very weathered or used, Most would pass for new. All that had props had bright yellow four blade props on them.
When I asked about them he seemed eager to sell them and told me $100 each or $500 for the whole lot, and he seemed to think there was more somewhere else in there as well, He said he don't do boat and that they had come with the building, He then directed me to a huge green tool box full of Honda tools and manuals that he said goes with it.
He said he put the lot of them on CL a few years ago but got no takers.

None that I checked were seized, all had compression and being they were that far into PA they weren't all salted up.

To be clear these are the blue motors with white hoods, most had CDI emblems on them. He also had several Johnson 9.5hp motors that looked really clean he said he's include in the lot. I was going to ask how much for just the two 9.5hp motors but when he said all for one price I didn't want to make him start putting prices on individual items.

I know nothing about the older Honda motors, where they good runners or something to avoid?
If they were junk, what was wrong with them? At face value I see a few dozen likely very viable four stroke motors for less than a cheap used trolling motor.

 

[oilsmoke]

Other than the fact they weighed closer to the weight of a good 20hp two stroke the early Honda motors were decent motors. Their cost likely kept them from being more common but that still holds true today and not all Honda dealers sell outboards.
Running wise they were rock solid. The only failures I've seen in those over the years was external exhaust leaks under the hood. The exhaust tube on the earlier models would rot through when run in saltwater and the leak would choke out the motor but it was an easy fix.
Length wise I've only ever seen one length, everyone I've seen has been on the short side of most 20" motors.
The few I worked on and test ran were good motors and they used a larger four blade prop that seemed super efficient compared to most stock props. The 7.5 and 10hp were the same motor with very minor differences mostly in adjustments. I can't recall if the carb was different or not bit all over parts were the same.
The few I've had here were super easy to start and rock solid reliable, They were ran a larger prop likely to match the big torque they made.

 

[hoarder]

I picked up a four of those motors myself from an estate in PA Three ran and one was a parts motor missing some lower unit parts.
I traded them away to a buddy who put one on his fiberglass skiff. Its proven to be a really great little motor. He made a home made jack plate but that worked out in a few ways. First, the slighty taller than most Honda motor on that bracket worked out perfectly height wise for starting it, it also let him get the exact prop height and by setting the motor back a bit lets the motor run a bit shallower than if it were on the transom, Its the easiest starting motor I've ever seen and the four blade prop moves a lot of water compared to a typical two stroke, Like anything Honda their a little different from the average outboard but they work great.

They're a bit heavier than a modern motor by a few lbs or so. I weighed one of them on a hook and got 82 lbs each. Through their run they did change the ignition system at least once but they have no major issues that I can see,

I traded the four older motors for a newer short shaft Honda, Since the older motors which were longer than I needed and rather than making a jack plate I figured it a fair trade but sort of wish I had just made the jack plate and run one of those motors instead. The newer motor us great but the older motor is easier to service and runs a larger prop.
My buddies boat is slower than mine with the newer motor but his moves better in strong current and is more maneuverable around the dock because of it.

From what little I remember about them when they were new is that they were a good bit more expensive than any other 10hp motor back then and four strokes were not very well received back then so Honda got sort of a slow start breaking into the marine market here, They still don't have a strong presence in this area with no local dealers or support for hours in any direction.

Those older Honda outboards were a bit more commercial looking than the newer motors and built much the same way.

 

[1pc@atime]

I had one on a 15ft aluminum trihull about 12 years ago. I had been running a Mercury 100 10hp from the 70's that would barely move that boat. I got the Honda off CL as part of a lot of motors and had never seen one before. The motor in the lot I was mostly after was an older Yamaha but the Honda with its four blade prop turned out to be the best of the bunch. The Yamaha was lighter and ran okay but the Honda would go through more, Things like lily pads and grass didn't bog it down like it did other motors. It had more low end grunt than top end though. I added a hydrofoil and it got the thing on place faster and while it topped out at 23 with the Yamaha I got a solid 19 to 20 mph out of the Honda with the boat being less finicky about weight and weight distribution. I sold that boat but probably should have kept that motor.