Most of the issues I have with customers who bring in Honda BF2 or Honda BF2.3 outboard engines are caused by either dirty fuel or water in the carburettor bowl. This is a weak point of the engine, as it is low HP the carb is small, as are the jets which make it much more susceptible to debris and water in the fuel.

The carb is fitted with a drain to allow the user to quickly drain the carb bowl, but, the vast majority of the carb bowl drain screws are corroded and seized due to a particularly poor design so insted of a quick carb bowl drain the owner is left stranded.

Below is an example of a typical Honda BF2.3 carb bowl with a seized drain screw.

Sooooo, it’s really difficult to sort this out as the screw is brass and even applying a whole load of heat to the removed bowl often doesn’t free it up so the only option is to replace the carburettor bowl at a price of UK approx £45 for parts alone.

There is an alternative

A Honda GX100 engine which is fitted to quite a number of their products has a carburettor bowl that is the same size as far as fitting goes, with the only real difference being an alternative style of drain point. below is a picture of a Honda GX100 carburettor float bowl.

You can purchase an aftermarket GX100 carburettor for approx £10 then simply swap out the float bowl with the one on your Honda BF2 or 2.3 and job done. The finish on the GX100 carb bowl is hardly salt water resistant so I normally apply a good coating of waxoyl to the bowl, I’ve done this on loads of Honda BF2 and 2.3’s that I look after and it’s never caused any problems.

Thanks for reading and visiting my site.

Tony