There are about a thousand of these small, air cooled outboard engines on eBay, Amazon, Walmart.com, etc. They seem too good to be true if you're in the market for a small outboard as I was. I didn't want something to set out and cross the Great Lakes...I just wanted something to allow me to hit the local reservoirs with my Sun Dolphin Sportsman 8 when there was too much water to cover with my Newport Vessels 55lb thrust electric.
After agonizing over the little there is on the Internet and watching video after video (specifically, Youtube user Gurra has a great long-term series on this motor) I finally settled on the Hangkai 4 horsepower 4 stroke and pulled the trigger. Now, there are subtle variations of this motor, but they are all basically the same. A Chinese Honda GXV50 4 stroke clone sitting atop what is said to be a Suzuki clone lower unit. Some are top exhaust, some are side (mine is side). Some are Hangkai branded, some are generic. But they are all built on the same platform. The genetics are good, but as we all know, anything from China can kind of get lost in the translation.
I plan to do long-term follow ups periodically, so you can check back from time to time to see how it's going, so that others won't have to fly blind as I did. I got the motor from Walmart.com, which is handy, because if it's a total disaster, I can return it to the store in 30 days. I also got the 4 year plan from Allstate to cover any issues, because getting a warranty from the manufacturer/seller is completely hit or miss (don't get me started on Amazon-I'll save that for a later post). My general rule is, if it's over $150, and it's not a brand name I can easily pronounce, I'm getting the optional coverage.
The total cost was just shy of $350 with tax, free shipping, and extended warranty. It arrived in 3 days from a warehouse in New Jersey via FedEx, which was surprisingly good for them. Opening the box, it appeared to be in excellent shape. There was a motor, a tool kit, some spares (shear pin, cotter pin, etc), but no manual. From what I understand, this is not a big loss because the manual that ships with some is not helpful, and sometimes outright wrong.
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| Unboxing. You get a tool kit, but no manual. |
My motor looked completely generic. Not one word of English on the outside. Lots of Chinese. Everything else in pictograms...choke, a flaming triangle on the gas tank, etc. No horsepower markings anywhere on it. A curious thing...the gas cap has a pictogram for gas and oil...please be careful and realize that these are 4 stroke engines and you do not mix the gas with the oil.
One of the issues that people have with this motor is that some ship with oil in the lower unit, and some do not. Also, some have a port in the lower that allows you to check, and some do not. Mine had no port, so the only option was to pull the prop and shear pin, pull the two bolts holding the gearbox cover in place, and pull that cover off. Luckily, mine had oil in it. Unluckily, I didn't realize that there was some compression within the gearbox that kept the gearbox cover from sitting flush. So, I put the first bolt in place and tightened it down, not realizing that the other side of the cover was not flush. So, when I started the bolt, it wasn't lining up correctly in the lower unit...and it stripped, the lower being aluminum. I tried several methods to fix it before I finally drilled it out, tapped it for a larger bolt, put that bolt in place and cut it off flush. I was then able to centerpunch and drill the new bolt hole to the correct size and replace the bolt. A moment of carelessness that cost me several hours time and a lot of headache.
In the process, I destroyed the gasket behind the cover. Fortunately, there was another one in the tool kit provided with the engine. I'll be taking it back apart after 10 hours to replace the gear oil, because I have seen that recommendation somewhere on the Internet, so I'll probably buy some gasket material and cut a new one.
So, it was the next day before I was able to proceed any further. I filled the engine with 5W-30. It takes almost exactly 1/4 of a quart to get to the top of the full range on the dipstick. From what I've read, those that ship with manuals are completely wrong on this, leading people to over-fill the engine oil, which causes a lot of smoke in the best case scenario, or fouls the plug and possibly damages the engine in the worst. I had no such problems. These engines require high octane gas. I bought exactly $5 worth of 91 octane and plan to use that for the remainder of summer so I'll probably put some stabilizer in it. Of course, everyone recommends that you use ethanol free gas, but I've found that if you don't leave gas sitting in the tank or carb, you rarely have any issues running small engines on ethanol.
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| Hour meter installed under the engine |
One other thing I did...I added an hour meter. I highly recommend this for any small engine application, and I also did this on my Champion 1000 watt inverter generator. Basically, if it has a spark plug, you can add an hour meter to it. Just wrap the lead around the spark plug wire 5 times and run it to your meter, which can be mounted to any clean surface with some 3M tape. It takes the guesswork out of maintenance and makes it easy to keep up. Search eBay for "inductive hour meter" and you'll see items similar to the one pictured. I went with the cheapest and ended up paying $7.95 for mine.
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| Mounted on the Sun Dolphin Sportsman 8 |
That done, it was ready to go. Since these engines are air cooled, you can do some testing with them on dry land. I put a splash of gas in the tank. Hit the primer bulb until I saw gas returning from the carb. Turned the choke on. The engine roared to life on the third pull. In less than 30 seconds, I was able to turn the choke off and let the engine settle into a nice idle. The drive system is clutched, so at low engine RPM, the prop does not turn. I varied the speeds to allow for a break in. Really, I need to run it under a load for a bit as well during break-in, so I didn't have it running for a long time. But, it ran.
It wasn't the quietest thing I've ever heard, either. Other users extend and re-route the exhaust to quiet it somewhat, and I'll be doing the same.
Some things to consider...the throttle does NOT stay where you put it. When you release the handle, the throttle returns to idle. Not super handy if you want to use the motor to troll while fishing, or if you want to reverse by spinning the engine around backward (there is no reverse gear). It really needs a weaker throttle spring, but it's also a safety feature, because if I should fall off the boat, the motor will go to idle and the prop (and the boat) will stop completely. Another thing, because of the side exhaust and the wiring/cabling, it is very difficult to pivot the handle over to use the motor in reverse.
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| The brass screw that I assume adjusts high speed. Or, maybe not... |
Sometimes, it seemed to be a little rough at higher RPM. Besides the throttle stop, there was only one adjustment on the carb that I could see...a brass screw right on the top. I gave it a 1/2 turn and it seemed to smooth out. Could have been my imagination, but it seemed to do better.
Every hot start after that was effortless, choke-less, and on the first pull. It really is an easy engine to start.
And that's as far as I went today. I hope to put the boat on the water sometime this week or next weekend to test real-world performance, and when that happens, I'll be back with an update.
UPDATE: First test of the Hangkai in the water is in the books, and I'm still not regretting my purchase. I put the Hangkai on the back of my Sun Dolphin Sportsman 8 and took it over 3 miles upstream in my local river. The only reason I stopped was because I hit a set of shoals and I didn't feel like walking the boat up them. Otherwise, I could have kept going.
The Hangkai performed as I would expect any outboard. Choke on the first start, single pull for every start after that. It does not use much gas. Yes, it's kinda loud, but it makes up for it by being slow. Honestly, this is not a four hoursepower engine. The Honda GXV50 is only rated at two, and I'm sure there's no magic in this Chinese design that doubles the horsepower. But, I was aware of that going in. The Hangkai would push the little Sun Dolphin up the river at 4-5 mph, according to GPS. I'm sure it went faster coming back down, but I didn't take a measurement.
Other than an occasional stumble at part throttle, the Hangkai showed no issues. It started and ran every time I pulled the cord. I'll keep my eye on the stumble, but later in the day, that issue seemed to subside.
So, the jury is still out, but I'm happy with how the motor is performing as of now.
UPDATE: I ran into another boater who was using the Hangkai outboard. His was almost identical to mine but had a red cover instead of black. He told me he'd had his for two years and had not had a single issue with it. He said that earlier in the year, he had trouble starting it, but took the old gas out and replaced it and it started right up. He said that he did nothing special with the engine and stored it outside year-round on his boat.
It's nice to get another data point. Seems these engines are more solid than many give them credit for being.
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