1988 3.0L

[Mike1317]

So I just recently bought an 88 sea ray Seville with the 3.0L mercruiser. As far as I know, it's a raw water cooled engine. I was told the water pump was bad so I took it apart and found green coolant in the engine. There is no coolant reservoir that I can see, so my question is is it added for winterization? Or is there somewhere that I can add coolant? Thanks in advance.

 

[stonyloam]

I think you you may have looked at the WRONG waterpump. You took off the one on the engine right? The pump to look at is the pump and impeller in the gear housing (lower unit) of the OUTDRIVE. If it were fresh water cooled it would have a heat exchanger and a reservoir with a radiator cap. Yeah someone probably put auto antifreeze in the block. Bad idea! Take care to dispose of it properly, very toxic to pets!

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

You have to pull the drive off the boat... at least you should pull the whole drive off and not just the lower half... to service the impeller.

There are other things to check and service while the drive is off, like greasing the u-joints and gimbal bearing.

Check the gimbal bearing for any roughness by spinning it with your fingers, should feel smooth like silk.

Check alignment of the gimbal bearing to the coupler which is bolted to the back of the engine.

Check the bellows for any tears or cracks in the rubber which can fill the boat with water if they fail.

Check out the "sticky" at the beginning of this forum labeled "Adults Only" it's chocked full of good info...

Here are some videos to check out:


Removing the outdrive from the boat:

Separating the upper from the lower

Water pump removal

 

[Mike1317]

Alright makes sense. So this is my first boat but I know car engines really well and I know these operate on similar principles...so if I remove the engine coolant, putting in the place of that should be clean water or some is there some type of marine coolant? Thanks again in advance

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

Without a heat exchanger, the engine is going to have sea water running thru it, which it will receive from the outdrive and it's water pump. You will have to get a set of muffs that slide on the drive and connect to a garden hose. You have to have water on anytime you run the engine or can burn up the impeller in the drive, and other rubber parts in the exhaust.

 

[stonyloam]

Yeah water is pumped from the outdrive to the engine waterpump where it is circulated through the engine block, out through the exhaust riser and is dumped into the exhaust to cool the exhaust gasses leaving the engine. There is a thermostat to control engine temperature. The coolant is water, so the block and manifold must be drained in the fall to prevent freezing a nd a cracked block.

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

Yeah water is pumped from the outdrive to the engine waterpump where it is circulated through the engine block, out through the exhaust riser and is dumped into the exhaust to cool the exhaust gasses leaving the engine. There is a thermostat to control engine temperature. The coolant is water, so the block and manifold must be drained in the fall to prevent freezing a nd a cracked block.

but we don't know too much about these issues.... since we are the step children of Mercrusier


sorry, just kidding.... a little private joke....