I am getting close to 3000 hours on the BF225’s. Vibration is starting to pick up as well. I am considering a few options:
Re Head the current engines and replace the throttle cables.
Re Power with new Mercury SeaPro 225hp and go to electronic throttles.
Re Power with new Mercury Verado 250hp and go to electronic throttles. This option is a very distant third.
I wonder if people have experience with any of these scenarios?
The re head option #1 is clearly the least expensive with the downside being the lowers are still aging and will need more maintenance than completely new engines. Also, the throttle cables are still manual.
The new Seapro’s option #2 is attractive especially with the electronic throttles but also twice the price as option #1. Also, the Seapro’s are slightly larger, so they don’t fit quite as nicely as the Honda’s when tilted.
Option #3 (the Verado’s) are the favorite of other boating friends who were owners of Defenders in the past. In fact, they are strong advocates for going to the 300hp Verado. 300hp seems overkill to me. The 250’s are attractive for vibration and noise reduction.
I’m personally waiting for the new Honda 250s (still no word but highly likely next year). I had a number of conversations with the folks at Safe on motors. 300s are not recommended and Safe considers them to be a significant safety risk, they had a story of a sheriff out east who didn’t listen to them and someone was killed. Do you currently have a hin plate with 250 or 225 max hp? Safe will give you a new plate but the transom needs to be inspected first, sometimes they will do it via pictures. I’d highly recommend staying in the range of what they say and don’t believe the boat has a long enough waterline to get much extra speed out of the 300s but would certainly get dangerously unbalanced. Also check with your insurance but when I contacted mine they said not only will they not cover you if you are overpowered there can also be criminal liability in the case of an accident.
I have decided that I’ll go electronic throttles when I get new engines but mine are running fine so no rush.
AC
Your comments about HP are very consistent with many knowledgeable folks especially given the physics of hull speed given length. Thank you. My 2007 does have a hin placard that says 225hp max. Are there some Defender 25’ that can go to 250? The Safe Boats inspection you refer to is for going over the current hin placard specification, I assume? I should give them a call.
Say more about the new Honda’s (2026?). What makes you think that a major upgrade is coming soon? The 2025 BF 225 or 250 look nice too. Performance wise they are close to the Mercury’s. I am looking for quiet and good fuel consumption.
My throttles are very tight. If I just did the re-head of the current engines, I would redo the throttle controls / cables as well.
I just did throttle cables, it wasn’t too expensive and made a big difference.
As far as the HIN plate just give them a call, they will send you a new plate you can put on, I was able to get it without a physical inspection as I took some good picts of the interior of the transom and the exterior before I bottom painted, they will look at the welds and signs of corrosion.
As far as the new Honda I may be wrong on 2026 but it is coming soon, the Honda 250 is still the best engine out in my book but is old tech, the last refresh was 2018, it’s based on the j35 engine in many Honda cars. Honda released a new 3.5l v6 in 2023 for the cars so guessing a few years to do a marine version. It should be a big improvement in efficiency, smoothness/noise and torque based on what I was told. I think it’s in the mdx, pilot, etc cars but I only really looked into it because I was trying to decide if I bought new iST 250s or put the money into new cables and the big service. That was 2 years ago and I’m glad I did the work to keep these running well.
One big caveat is the new 300hp Honda is still using the old platform but with McLaren awesomeness, not sure if that indicates they will stick with the old base engine, either way a refresh must be coming soon as it’s been 7 years.
I am in the same boat (pun intended) but am thinking about going with these new Suzuki 225s vs Honda 225s. In addition to being slightly lighter and also love the matte black, the Suzukis come with a 7 year warranty (vs 8 on the Hondas right now) and Suzukis are $20k cheaper for full repower. Both repowers are priced at drive by wire/electronic.
I’ve never thought of the Suzukis as performance outboards so haven’t considered them, they tend to have good low end but struggle on the high end. Interesting that there is such a difference on price. The other one to consider is the Yamaha 250s, they are lighter than the others (I wouldn’t buy a merc so not included) and really well regarded. Almost all my outboards are Hondas however so holding out hope for the refresh.
Rumor from a highly reliable source is that the new Honda 250 is coming out this summer, will not be a new block but will combine a bunch of the capabilities/features on the Honda 350.
AC
Ok, I was wildly inaccurate and clearly was talking to a tech from Suzuki at the Boat Show and not the new Sales Dept. The only Suzuki in that Matte Black is the 300hp and they were $10k more than repowering with Honda 225s- which is what I ended up doing with local marina shop. In talking to SAFE, they said nothing more than 450hp total for my boat, but maybe there’s a slight difference in various years? Mine is a 2004.