Honda launches its BF350 outboard engine in Australia

The new BF350 was officially revealed in September last year, with the new 5.0-litre V8 powerplant entering full production on its own line at Honda’s Hamamatsu outboard engine plant where everything from 10hp up to 250hp is already built.

Because it uses a separate line the BF350 can be built using the latest car-based technology that includes torque wrenches with Bluetooth connections that will not let the engine advance to the next stage until the wrench’s electronic smarts registers that all the bolts have been torqued correctly – a huge lift in quality control compared with the older low-tech line.

Honda plans to launch six new marine engines by 2030, which could include a 400hp version of the V8.

However, until it does, the 60-degree V8 is the flagship of Honda’s outboard engine range, as well as the only bent eight in the 350hp segment.

The engine – Honda’s first-ever production V8 – was developed in Japan, with the COVID-19 pandemic helping to keep the program a strongly guarded secret. Early in its development, test engines were sent to the US and one of Honda’s largest markets internationally, Italy, for real-world tuning.

Rather than tap engineers exclusively from its automotive division to develop the BF350, Honda blended in engineers from its aeronautical team – yep, the company has designed and built its own jet aircraft – to sharpen the focus on keeping weight to a minimum.

Honda had three boats wearing its new engines at its Australian launch ahead of this week’s 2024 Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show – an Italian-built Lilibelium dayboat and a Parker pocket cruiser wearing a single BF350, and a Robalo R317 split console crossover powered using twin BF350s and featuring Dometic’s Optimus 360 joystick control system.

We’ll bring you more on what we thought of the new engine a little bit later.

However, at less than $50,000 Honda has deliberately priced the new BF350 to undercut rivals such as the twin-prop Suzuki DZF350, the 5.7-litre Mercury V10 Verado and the yet-to-launch Yamaha F350 V6 outboard engine.

The new engine adds car-based technology including BLAST, Honda’s name for its extra serve of torque delivered low in the rev range, as well as VTEC which uses variable valve technology to make the engine spin more freely higher up in the rev range, improving power output.

The Honda BF350 includes a double-tap feature that automatically raises or lowers the engine’s tilt without needing to hold down the trim button. It will also automatically trim the engine to give the optimum level of performance, although you’ll likely need to intervene in a head or following sea.

It is also the only engine on the market to feature both a trolling mode and full cruise control that can set the boat’s speed all the way up to wide-open throttle.

The engine was built with US marine rescue services in mind, which run a lot of electronics even while idling. This has evolved into a system that can raise the revs of the engine at idle to produce the maximum 47 amps of battery-charging power while the boat is out of gear.

Part of the engine’s development program has focused on ease of use, meaning that servicing touch points and even the spread of corrosion-busing anodes around the BF350 have all been optimised to do a better job of protecting the engine.

The new Honda BF350 outboard engine will be on display at this week's 2024 Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show.