Re: cooling for a Mercury 150 hp Black Max
What year is the engine?
Do a search. You'll find several discussions on the cooling system for these engines.
It is hard to answer your question. I know on my 1982 150, I get a dribble (barely) after about 15 seconds. On my engine, water only gets to the tell-tale when the t-stats open. It will get a weak stream after running hard, but then it will reduce to a dribble again after idling a bit.
In general, I would say 15 seconds is a good number.