1964 Sportwin 9.5 clogged cooling system

[davidf.]

I was given a 1964 Sportwin 9.5 outboard model 9422RA.
The p.o. said he was running it on the lake and all of a sudden it quit. The cylinder head is discolored from overheating.

I pulled the lower unit and tried running water up the intake but nothing came out anywhere. I pulled the thermostat and tried pouring water down through the thermostat tube and water barely trickled out from somewhere, but not the intake tube.

It looks like the impeller is new. I need to check back and find out if my friend changed the impeller after the motor quit on him. I suspect he did and the previous impeller had thrown chunks up the intake.

So I'm pretty sure I have something clogged in there somewhere. I can run a wire up the intake tube all the way to the powerhead, but can't really get anywhere down the thermostat tube because it takes a right angle at the bottom.

The thermostat was pretty dirty but after I soaked it a little in vinegar it opened up at 160 degrees. From what I understand that's higher than it should be but I don't think thats the cause of the overheating.

I can turn the flywheel okay. The cylinders don't seem to be frozen up. But I have not attempted to start the motor.

I do have a Clymer Evinrude/Johnson shop manual for 2-40 hp '73 to '87. But none of the pictures seem to be for my particular model.

One more thing. Since this motor was a "gift" and I really don't have a particular use for it at the moment, I have two goals that are pretty much even - resurrecting an old motor from a trip to the junkyard and learning more about outboard maintenance. I also have a 1976 6hp Johnson OB for my sailboat.

Armed with this information, what is my next step? I'm hoping to avoid pulling the powerhead if there's any other way to find the clog. My big concerns are that water doesn't come out where it should from the thermostat and that water doesn't go anywhere from the intake.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: 1964 Sportwin 9.5 clogged cooling system

there were basically no changes in the 9.5 until 1972, so you can go here and look up 1969 9.5 http://shop2.evinrude.com/ext/index.aspx?s1=bf6ad09c53cead335fcfd8a6471c0f7f

i just had one doing the same thing, may as well go ahead and pull the head.

 

[crxess]

Re: 1964 Sportwin 9.5 clogged cooling system

^^^^ pull the head. You will have access to all the passages around the cylinders.

 

[davidf.]

Re: 1964 Sportwin 9.5 clogged cooling system

Thanks for the suggestions. When you say 'pull the head', are we talking the whole powerhead unit out of the housing? or are we talking pull the cylinder head.

What is involved in pulling the powerhead? I see a bolt on each side of the housing, then lots of connections inside. How far to I have to dismantle it to get to the cooling system?

The link to the exploded view really helps.

Thanks,
DavidF.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: 1964 Sportwin 9.5 clogged cooling system

cylinder head. be really careful with the thermostat cover, there are only a very few new ones left available.

 

[mchin]

Re: 1964 Sportwin 9.5 clogged cooling system

I had the same problem, I eventually ended up pulling the head, but before I did that, I took a water ballon hose attachment, put it on a hose and stuck it on the end of the water tube (the foot has to be off of course) and tried to see if I could flush it, then I took off the thermo cover and after busting off a bolt, was able to flush water down both passage ways. I then tried to go in the back way after taking off the rubber exhaust tube. It ended up that the motor had sucking in sand and was not flushed well after running in saltwater. I finally pulled the head and had to scrape a lot of crud out. Don't try to re-use the head gasket, buy a new one. By the way, the foot of this motor was filled with sand and crap as well, you may need to clean it all out too.

Get a manual if ya don't have one, there is a sequence to bolting the cylinder head back on.

Lastly, I have never had good luck with the water tube, there are 3 little screws way down deep and just the whole rig of how it's attached up the leg is a pain, so do yourself a favor and don't break or bend it out of whack.

Good luck and have fun

 

[davidf.]

Re: 1964 Sportwin 9.5 clogged cooling system

Okay, I pulled the cylinder head after spraying the bolts down with penetrating oil a couple days. Only broke off one bolt! Guess that's better than breaking off more than one. The pistons & cylinders look pretty good to me. Some crud but not too bad. The water passages have lots of scale.

I still can't get to what's stopping up the water intake.

Is there a trick to getting the housing off? I see 4 phillips screws on the left side. One is stuck. Then there are a couple bolts to remove. But how do I deal with the shifter?

Down on the lower right hand side of the powerhead, there's some sort of small housing with 2 5/16" bolts holding it on. This is probably what I need to get to.

You can see it just to the right of the lower cylinder. Sorry about the fuzzy picture.

Also, what's the best way to clean the scale out the water jacket?

I'm not too worried about the broken bolt. It's about time I got me a set of ez-outs.

 

[samo_ott]

Re: 1964 Sportwin 9.5 clogged cooling system

ez-outs suck! They just usually break off in the hole and then make it harder/impossible to get out. Just drill it out a bit bigger hole at a time until it's all gone. Start dead center though. That's the hard part.

It sure looks overheated. Did you take the compression before you pulled the head? That would give you a good baseline for comparison.

That's good you got it fro free. I hear so many things are hard to work on on those engines that I think free is the only way I will ever get one to work on!

 

[F_R]

Re: 1964 Sportwin 9.5 clogged cooling system

Unless you are extremely mechanically gifted, a factory service manual is a must if you expect to pull the powerhead. As you have already figured out, the lower covers must be split. There are literally dozens of doo-dads to disassemble, including the motor mounts, co-pilot, throtle linkage, shift linkage, interlock, slow speed adjuster, choke, front panel, vibration dampers, and probably some more that I forget at the moment.

 

[davidf.]

Re: 1964 Sportwin 9.5 clogged cooling system

I just have a Clymer book. No real detail on this engine.

I've heard there's a grommet at the top of the water inlet that is notorious for swelling and blocking the water passage. I have a feeling that's what's at play here.

But you have reaffirmed my hesitation to taking the lower housing apart. Looks like there are just a ton of things to take apart. I guess it was too much to hope there was a hidden button behind the carb that magically let the housing wing out for easy access.

 

[davidf.]

Re: 1964 Sportwin 9.5 clogged cooling system

Just wanted to post an update and say thanks for the help. I did a lot of searches on this forum and developed a game plan. I worked and worked poking wires and weed-eater string (great tip by the way) in all the water passages, digging out old crud until I could get good air flow thru the waterways. It was plugged up pretty bad. After I got that cleared up it's time to start putting things back together before I forgot what went where.

The first order of business was to get the busted bolt out of the head. I tried a "Back-It-Out" which is sort of like an Ez-Out but all it did was grind away the part of the bolt that was sticking out proud from the head. I stopped with that while I still had a nubbin to grab on to with a vise-grip.

I tried heat next. I fired up the oxy-propane torch and heated up the bolt. Then sprayed penetrating oil. Heated it up again then tried vise-grips. It didn't budge but some of the bolt crumbled away leaving almost nothing to hold on to.

So I stuffed paper towels in the cylinders. Taped over everything but the stubborn bolt. Then I ground it off fairly flush and started drilling. I drilled out the bolt, dug out the few remaining pieces and tapped new threads.

Slapped a fresh head gasket on, bolted the lower unit back on and it's Tank Time!!!

I filled up my dedicated outboard testing bucket and...







It fired up on the second pull!!!

The motor runs pretty smooth considering I haven't even touched the carb. Now I've got to borrow a boat to lake test it. This motor is too short for my sailboat so I really don't have a use for it - other than for learning on.

So thanks for all the help.

DavidF