Honda 5hp 4 stroke less engine noise help please

[DonNZ]

Hi Folks

I have the above on a 9'6 rib and I cant hear my daughter without her speaking by my ear. Has anyone tried sound reducing foam inside the engine cover or some kind of silencer to reduce carb induction roar ?

Regards Don

[nwcove]

i admittedly dont know much about 4stroke ob's , but are you sure you dont have another problem with the motor? that 5hp should be whisper quiet! is the motor new...or just new to you??

[DonNZ]

1997 good condition, runs very well. New to me about one month. Probably motored 25 hours with 80% as fast as she'll go. Whisper aye
I feel it's sound mechanically. My hearing isn't what it was 30 years ago !
Regards Don

[nwcove]

lol, iknow what yer sayin....ears are still good, but eyes are gettin iffy! ( but , i use my 4.5 rude, on a 12 foot boat, even at wot you can talk to the person in the bow seat, without having to yell! check for an exhaust leak under the cowl. the only time ive ever heard of excessive carb noise....was from a two stroke, with really bad timing issues.)

[ondarvr]

Most of the small single cylinder outboards, 4 strokes inlcuded, are loud and tend to vibrate terribly. So what you are experiencing is normal. The solution is to get a twin cylinder model, or get used to it.

[DonNZ]

Did wonder that
More cubic capacity does has a lovely aroma and after taste.

Regards Don

[scoutabout]

+1 on the inherent noise of single pot outboards. My 3.5 Johnny and 5 hp Yammy (both 2 stroke) are fine at 60 percent throttle. Any more than that on either and it's like a dryer full of marbles and scalded cats...

The 2 pot 7.5 Merc 2 stroke is leaps and bounds better but is starting to wear on the noggin after more than an hour at cruise.

Now, my 4 cyl 4 stroke 90 Yammy you can hardly hear at idle and can easily communicate in conversational tones anywhere from cruise to WOT.

[bassman284]

Could be cowl vibration.

I have 2003 Merc 9.9 4 stroke that I bought new as a kicker. The lake closest to me has a 10 hp limit during the summer months. It's louder than the old 5 horse Gamefisher I used to have. Drove me nuts, but I tolerated it for the last 8 years.

I had found that if I put both hands on the top of the cowl with my fingers spread down the sides and pressed and squeezed hard, most of the noise would go away. This summer I decided to get to work on it and found that if I put my fingers in the bottom of the opening around the pull rope and pulled forward a lot of the noise went away. So I stuck a piece of weatherstrip on the inside of the cowl in that area and got a great improvement in noise. Not ideal, but better.

I've tried various dabs of foam here and there with no noticeable improvement and actually made it worse in a couple of instances. I did think about putting foam all over the inside of the cowl but right now I'm not convinced that is the answer.

FYI, this motor is a 2 cylinder made by Yamaha.