Well im a newbie on this forum and to the world of outboards.. Ive been around boats all my life but only IO's. The other day i bought my very first boat. Its a 1978 checkmate enchanter 19'. The boat has a 200 hp mercury v6. The boat had been sitting for over 7 years so i did what i thought should be maintnaced before i took it out. I cleaned the carbs, changed the impeller, changed all of the fuel lines, fuel filter and a good visual inspection of the wiring and so on.. When i started the motor the first time outside the water with bunny ears, i noticed there was no water comming out of the cooling hose (not sure of the tech name). Since i had checked the water pick up for blocks and changed the impeller, the only other thing to my knowledge was the thermostats. Next i took the thermostats out and boiled them in water. Sure enough they opened and looked very clean. At that point i figured running the boat at idle doesnt warm the motor up enough to open them, my guess?? The next day i took the boat out to a local lake. As fast as i could turn the key, (with out choke) the motor started. I did a few half mile loops near the boat ramp and it died. Got extremely hot!! So hot a rubber hose had burnt on the cyl head. After cooling down, i was only able to get spark from 2 coils. My guess the heat was too much for them. Well thats the boat im in, literallly.. I am willing to put more money into it but im limited to around 500 bucks. I need opionions from the pros!! I really hope that the block is unharmed and all i have to do is wiring and cooling. I had one chance to buy a boat and really hope i didnt screw it up. Any help would be fantastic!! Thanks to everyone for their replys.
