Early Honda 4 stroke any good?

[jays375]

Just found a late 70's Honda 7.5 four stroke engine.It is in really nice condition.My boat is only a 12' V bottom.How is this motor as far as power is concerned?Mostly small lake fishing and some river fishing.Would it work good in a river?

[MGMorden]

Aluminum or glass boat?  If it's aluminum then I'd say you're fine.  If fiberglass that's probably a little underpowered.

Do you have a placard on the board? If so it should state the max HP and weight/person loads of the boat.  Ideally you want to have 75% of the rated maximum HP for the hull. 

My brother uses a little 15hp 4-stroke Mercury on a 15' aluminum boat and it gets him where he's going.  He traded down from a 25hp 2-stroke Johnson that was always breaking down.

Good luck!

[Winter Hawk]

It's a pretty heavy motor.  I had a 10 horse Honda on a 17' sailboat and it was way too heavy.  Pulled the transom down pretty badly.  However, it was one heck of a work motor.  I bought the boat from a gal who used it for commercial hand trolling in SE Alaska and got the Honda for its dependability.  That was in 1984, so the motor was around the vintage of yours.  The way I understand it, the 7.5 hp motor was the basically a detuned 10 hp.

-WH-

[coopershooter]

My son bought one a while back, ran good but would pump no water. im picking up an impellor and housing on friday, $120.00 bucks!  a little steep, but from what i hear, these motors ran good and were hard to kill.  good luck