My first garbage bag incident?

[whywhyzed]

3.8 OMC 800 stringer 1983
Tonight...I backed off the railway...putted out the channel...up on plane to run across the shallow part...
All the way out I'm thinking the exhaust is much louder than usual.
After about 2 minutes I do my rescan of the gauges... Temp 230 ish!
I pulled it to neutral and shut it off.
I drift around a bit doing some visual checks....see nothing obviously wrong.
I restart and the temp drops quick to about 210...then climbs to 225.....I shut it off again..... restart and temp drops like a stone to 170.
Ran for an hour after that watching gauges like a hawk...everything seems fine. Oil clean no leaks performance good.
Impeller 1.5 years old.

 

[DHPMARINE]

Re: My first garbage bag incident?

I think you are right.

BUT if you haven't done an impeller replacement in a stringer drive in over 1 1/2 years,do it know,while you can still get it apart.

DHP

 

[rebars1]

Re: My first garbage bag incident?

Sticky thermostat?

 

[Purduebarry]

Re: My first garbage bag incident?

Might have been a plug of muck and it finally cleared out. A friend of mine found a mud daubber nest in his intake, a few forced flushes and walla, temp back to normal.

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: My first garbage bag incident?

I was thinking sticking thermostat too,....is about time for the impeller.

 

[lilmandavis]

Re: My first garbage bag incident?

230ish is not good for the heads dude. figure it out before that happens again. you may have cheated failure this time but it wont happen again!!!

 

[Boomyal]

Re: My first garbage bag incident?

BUT if you haven't done an impeller replacement in a stringer drive in over 1 1/2 years,do it know,while you can still get it apart.

I hate to be arguementative but I have had two impeller replacements in my 1979 800 in 26 years. The first one was in 1993 and it did not even look bad. The boat had many hours on it at that time. The second one was just done last year when I had the drive torn down to check everything out. It looked just fine. It did not have near the hours on it that the previous one did. But still it was 12 years.

 

[THE BEEF]

Re: My first garbage bag incident?

HYSTAT
1981 stringer did the same thing even after I replaced
the water pump and thermostat. What I found was the seals
on the lower unit where the upper gear box couples to where leaking exhaust gas into the raw cooling water causing overheating. There are two ways to check this .First you can run clear tubing up to the therm housing and look for bubbles
in the water or pump the swivel bearing housing full of triple guard grease. The fitting is on the front side down at the bottom of the
upper gear box. There is a hole that the grease zerk is back in
There might be a plug covering it. The grease will seal it up.
I did mine and took care of the overheat issue. I'll change
the seals in the fall. A OMC mechanic told me this .
Beef

 

[whywhyzed]

Re: My first garbage bag incident?

I just pulled the impeller and all looked fine. I'm off to p/u a new one anyways and a t-stat.
The exhaust area there does not appear to have been leaking - not that I could really tell though...seals look pretty good- it did need grease and I'm going to grab some clear tubing just for laffs..
I'm looking out in the channel this morning- it's really soupy this year. I'm thinking where I dropped the drive, I grabbed a huge mass of weeds. I normally drop the drive before floating off- but didn't yesterday. Explains the noise if they were all mashed between the drive and the exhaust hole.
It's tricky boating in the boggy stuff here. Better than salt though. Bolts all came out like they had been submersed in oil.
Also-the Castrol Pyroplex Blue is still on my w/p shaft splines 1.5 yrs later! I think that's the trick to w/p spline life - either that Castrol stuff or Merc spline grease.

 

[THE BEEF]

Re: My first garbage bag incident?

My seals look good to. I learned as a millwright that a pump will always suck air before it will suck waterWhen. the unit is idling
does it run cool? The water is around the seal area idleWhen idle.When you open the throttle the water is away from the pump housing and wii wii suck exhaust if at possable possable. Mine ran fine then all of
a sudden high temp one day .I was out on the lake when it happened. The temp shot up at droped and droped right back idle at idle.I would pump the grease first before pulling againWhen unit again.When I pulled my pump it goodA still good.A year and a half it should be like brand new yet.

 

[THE BEEF]

Re: My first garbage bag incident?

My seals looked ok too. I learned as a millwright that a pump will always suck air before water. My temp would shoot up at throttle
and drop when idling.When idling the water is around the pump and seal housing sealing it. When throttling up the pump and seal housing is out of the water and exhaust gas is pouring over
them. GOOD LUCK!
BEEF

 

[Boomyal]

Re: My first garbage bag incident?

...... The fitting is on the front side down at the bottom of the
upper gear box. There is a hole that the grease zerk is back in
There might be a plug covering it. The grease will seal it up.

TB, I am not aware of a zerk in this location. Isn't your '81 still a hydro-mechanical (as is mine).

Could you post a picture? Thanks

 

[THE BEEF]

Re: My first garbage bag incident?

Boom
Yes its a 1981 800 stringer with a 305 200HP.
I guess what im calling the front is the side facing the transom.
Its half down the unit .There might be a plug cover on it.
This greases the swivel bearing.
BEEF