Water not coming out exhaust ports

[2 tall]

Good news...Well, I took your advice and took it out to the lake and started it and ran it around. The temperature gauge heated up quickly to 160 and I was nervous. Then it stayed there and bobbed between 170 and 160 while I drove it around on the lake. The hoses got more firm as water obviously was flowing through them after I got it up to speed, but at idle the hoses were still soft. The manifolds never got "hot" as I touched them they were very warm, but I could put my hand on them.
Then the icing on the cake was when I pulled the boat out of the water up the ramp tons and tons of water came out the exhaust port...so obviously the impeller was working and everything was great because it never got over about 170 degrees on the temp and it ran like a champ. So evidently it needed to be run. The more I ran it the better it seemed to get. I am calling it problem solved. Thanks everyone for all the advice. I guess I just have one of those boats that does not like to be run off of a plunger. I can't thank everyone enough for the advice.

[ATXChris]

Great to hear things are working !

I have trouble running mine of the plunger too.  A couple of ideas I've had but haven't had the chance to try yet :

- Get a hose attachment like this http://www.skidim.com/prodinfo.asp?number=0457DP7 .  Since its a direct attachment it would probably offer more water pressure to get the air out and prime the impeller pump.  Added bonus, no crawling under the boat to hook up the plunger ...

- Crack open the bottom hose of the impeller while the plunger water is turned on to let any air out of the intake hoses.  This should allow the pump to start pumping water once the engine is cranked up.

[2 tall]

Oooh...that engine flush from SKIDIM looks like it would make thing a lot easier. Thanks for the tip. I may have to wait until winter since my gas budget shrinks everytime my wife leaves the house.

[skibeau]

Congratulations!! You got her fixed without changing the sparkplugs! 

[toyotafreak]

Skibeau, post of the month!

[cdlollar]

The boat has a 160 degree thermostat, it will take more than 45 seconds for the motor to heat up enough for the thermostat to open. Water will not go through the system until the thermostat opens up.

Hook up water hose to the inlet hose and let the boat run until it at least gets to 160 degrees, if it get much over 160 and there is still not water coming out the exhaust then your thermostat  may be seized up and not opening.

[cdlollar]

Oops, didn't see the second page in the thread, good to see it worked out for you already....

[toyotafreak]

Water always flows through the headers, right?

[ATXChris]

I was thinking when the thermostat is closed water bypasses and goes through the headers too ...

[2 tall]

I am still a bit curious about why it won't take water through the fake-a-lake plunger even though it runs perfectly on the lake? I tested the thermostat in the spring before I re-installed it. I out it in water and heated the water and the thermostat opened as it should. I tested it probably 4 times because I was cleaning it as I went along and it opened every time, even when it was dirty and I thought it would never open. Maybe it does work now off the fake-a-lake....now that I think about it, I have not tried it on the plunger after discovering it was working at the lake...maybe I'll try that later this week.

[cdlollar]

Most fresh water boats operate on and open loop system, meaning that water from the lake directly cools the engine and is returned to the lake. Fig. 13 is the open loop system that comes standard with our boats. 



In an open loop system the water does not flow through to the headers until the thermostat opens.
The fresh water pump picks up lake water sending it to water pump on the engine which then travels though the engine block then out through the thermostat returning to the lake through the cooling jackets on the exhaust manifolds.

So unless you have a closed loop system or someone has added a bypass between the fresh water pump and the the engine water pump circuit then the water will not flow through the headers until the thermostat opens as this part occurs after the thermostat.

Many boats that operate in salt water use a closed loop system.

In a closed loop system the fresh water pump picks up the lake water and flows it through a heat exchanger which then would return it back to the lake direct through the headers. (does not flow through the thermostat). The water (coolant) that cools the engine is in a closed loop system just like your car engine that is circulated by the water pump on the engine, the heat exchanger works just like the radiator in your car.