Circulating water pump

[Davidongdds1996]

I have a 5.7l mag mpi mercruiser 350 engine with a closed cooling system. ( I add coolant to this system) But I also have the sea water pump too. I recently removed my water heater that I don’t use on my boat. It had two hoses connecting to it, one coming from the top of the circulating water pump and the other from the intake manifold. Do I plug up these two holes with pipe plugs or do I put a hose running from the top of the circulating pump to the intake manifold? Or does it even matter which option I do? Any advice would be helpful.

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,..... Welcome Aboard,..... Either option will work, just fine,....

 

[tpenfield]

:welcome: to iBoats . . .

As Bondo said . . . either. The cleaner approach would be to remove the 2 hoses and replace them with plugs.

FWIW - Not sure if you are familiar with the cooling system, but the sea water pump is a critical part of your cooling system, as it brings cool water into the heat exchanger and out the exhaust.

 

[Davidongdds1996]

Thanks Bondo and Supreme Mariner for the advice and welcoming me to this boating forum. Hey, can you guys tell me why I keep adding half coolant/water mixture in the heat exchanger to the top and after I go out in the boat and check it, the coolant /water mixture I added is gone? Where did it go? Do I have to keep adding to top it off? The coolant bottle reservoir is always at the full mark. Shouldn’t the heat exchanger get the coolant from the bottle reservoir when it needs to? I’m confused?

 

[tpenfield]

sounds like you have a leak in your cooling system. You heat exchanger cap may not be making a proper seal, so it is sucking air rather than coolant from the reservoir.

 

[Davidongdds1996]

Hi Ted, I’m in need of your expert advice again. I just blew out my bravo 3 dual prop outdrive. The newer one that needs two anodes in the front. My boat mechanic friend thinks it’s a 2.20 gear ratio. The serial numbers have been eroded from outdrive so the only way to find out the gear ratio is to open it up. I’ve been told to take off the top of the outdrive to confirm if it’s a 2.20 gear ratio. Is it hard to do this and what do I look for or count to confirm it’s a 2.20 gear ratio? Thanks for any input you give me

 

[tpenfield]

Not an expert on the gear ratio thing . . . but I believe there is a way to tell by the number of teeth on the upper gear set. Maybe you can google some more specific information. Like this . . .

http://info.nuwavemarine.com/determining-mercruiser-bravo-gear-ratio-gear-tooth-chart/


Sorry for not knowing more specifically, although I plan on opening up my Bravo drives sometime soon to fix a worn clutch issue.