De-winterization

[FreeBeeTony]

Started my 350 Vortec today.....started pretty easily.

During the off season I replaced the raw water impeller (engine mounted pump), cap, plugs, rotor.

Started engine and let come to op temp.

Smoked more than usual....a good 10 min, maybe I used more marvel mystery while fogging...

I had muffs on the drive and a hose in the raw water inlet hose.
I felt the water exiting the exhaust and it was pretty warm.......never noticed it before.....

 

[Don S]

Re: De-winterization

My guess is you had a Y fitting on your hose, with equal amounts of water going to both the engine and the drive. I would bet the engine pump is not getting enough water. Try cutting down on the amount going to the drive. You only need enough to keep it from burning up the impeller, but the engine needs a lot more to keep cool.
Also, in cool weather, you do see a bit more steam coming off the water.
True test is what happens in the water when you have two pumps like that.

 

[FreeBeeTony]

Re: De-winterization

You're right Don.....I have a Y at the spiket.......

Will probably be fine in the water.....

 

[cecho]

Re: De-winterization

I know you're using a Mercruiser, but the OMC stringers' raw water pump is too high up to use muffs. One of my OMC's had a flush fit attached to the pivot, two of them used a coolant T with a hose pipe fitting to run the engines on land. Water went both ways until the raw water pump kicked it and kept the water going to the engine. I'm sure there was some leakage but it wasn't much. Why did you have both muffs and a fitting for the engine? It seems to me either would work, but using both could cause trouble and make your job unnecessarily complicated. I imagine the impeller could create a circulation from the Y to the impeller robbing energy that would normally be used to get the water to the engine.