Excessive Exhaust Steam? or does this look normal?

KDMatt

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
34
Hello all. It's been a number of years since I last posted here (which has translated to many years of happy boating) but now I could use some opinions.

I have a 1998 Yamaha P150 TRLX 2-stroke outboard on my 89 Deckboat.

Out on the water a few weeks ago I had a warning buzzer go off - normally it's the oil tanks (because the sensors don't work/transfer correctly - long story) but this time it looked normal and the buzzer continued to sound even with the motor off. I let it sit for a few hours and the buzzer went away and never came back on the rest of the evening.

I had just replaced the water pump impeller + seals, and the pee'er stream was extremely strong and the water temp was maybe luke-warm at best? Still, during that outing it looked like there was a bit of steam at the back of the motor even though the exhaust water stream looked and felt normal. (unfortunately I forgot to take note of what particular warning the gauge was flashing during the buzzing)

I went ahead and and changed the thermostats tonight - it'd been a few years and the old ones looked pretty crusty.

I also noticed the remote oil tank was a bit low (maybe down about 1/4 tank?) so I added a few quarts there as well just on the offchance the buzzer was due to this tank being low - i.e. the hull tipped back enough on power that the sensor dropped really low.

I hooked the motor up to the hose tonight, flushed everything out, then fired it up and let it run 5-10 minutes to get up to temperature, revved it a few times and never got the buzzer to sound.

Ordinarily I'd call that a win, but I noticed more steam than what I'm accustomed to coming out of the exhaust around the prop, and the force of the exhaust + water was strong enough to actually spin the prop. I can't recall ever seeing that before so I wanted another set of opinions before I start to worry. (As a note, out of the water the engine idles at 1200-1300 rpm.)

THE ONLY REASON I'm being so paranoid is because the garage I store the boat in over the winter got down below freezing during a couple of points (broken heater) and remembering this, I briefly got cold-sweats thinking that some moisture froze up inside of there and possibly really hurt something.

I'm linking a picture of what it looked like with the engine running, at idle, and at temperature. Does this look concerning or am I just being paranoid? Thanks in advance.

(forum wouldn't let me attach, sorry!)
 
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