Problem with no water peeing out tell-tail.

[leonreno]

I have a 2002 200hp Mercury Carbed Saltwater motor, that is not peeing out tell-tail. I just replaced the impeller and housing so it should be fine. Water is sputtering out of the idle exhaust vent below the tell tail. The motor is not over heating. I am running it in a 100 gallon tub with water about 5" above the lower unit. I pulled the thermostats and tested them, the work fine. I pulled the hose to tell tail and it was clear, even poured water into hose from thermostat and it came out tell-tail. The motor was idled up to 1100rpm with no overheating for about 4 or 5 minutes. My thought was the poppet valve is stuck open, I ordered a rebuild kit and will check it and install the new kit when I get it. Anything else that I should check or worry about? Do not have a water pressure gauge, bought one and am working on installing it after I get the right barb coupler to mate the two different sized hoses.

Serial number is OT566776

 

[enginepower]

That engine will probably not "pee" until thermostats open. If you look at the routing, they are on the output side of the thermostats. If you want to be able to monitor it, a temp gauge and water pressure gauge will let you know things are doing ok.

 

[leonreno]

It's got a temp gauge, though it only has hash marks with no temps listed. However, I let it idle and fast idle for atleast 4 minutes and the temp gauge rose and then stopped rising at about 3/4 up. Then it would stay there as it continued idling. It always would pee sooner than that before. Motor had not ran for a year before that. Temp would rise a little if I revved it up a little but settle down when back to idle.

 

[leonreno]

I got the adapter for the pressure gauge and should have the poppet kit soon, I'll install gauge and poppet kit when I get the chance. Would like to know if there is anything else that would cause it to do this other than poppet valve and thermostats?

 

[Dukedog]

It's got a temp gauge, though it only has hash marks with no temps listed. However, I let it idle and fast idle for atleast 4 minutes and the temp gauge rose and then stopped rising at about 3/4 up. Then it would stay there as it continued idling..

was this tha way it read before it was "put up" for a year? do you have a "temp gun?

 

[leonreno]

Actually, it used to idle a little warmer than that, it used to warm up pretty warm then cool off some, I assumed that was when the thermostats opened up. Don't have a temp gun but have been thinking of getting one, and probably will.

 

[leonreno]

I did put my hand on the head when it was warmed up and idling, it was hot but I could keep my hand on it for about 2 seconds before I had to pull my hand back.

 

[Dukedog]

get tha gauge hooked up... put it in tha water and do what ya normally do... if its not right it will let ya know pretty quick... all we're doin' right now is "guessin'" at something that may/may not be a problem......

 

[leonreno]

ok, made some progress. I installed the new poppet valve kit and also installed the water pressure gauge. Good news: water coming out of tell-tail really good now. Temp hovered around the 3/4 mark on temp gauge, mostly just below it but also just a hair above. Bad/Weird News: water pressure according to gauge at idle fluctuates between 5lbs and almost 9lbs, which is pretty high for idle. It went back and forth between it about every 30 to 60 seconds or so. My guess was when the thermostats opened and close. According to the service manual, higher than normal idle pressure is either clogged tell-tail or clogged poppet valve bypass hose. The tell-tail is not clogged but I didnt check the hose past the tell-tail and did not have a chance to check poppet valve hose from top of head to poppet valve. Still don't have a temp gun, though I will soon. One other thing was the tell-tail water is very hot, couldn't really keep my hand in it more than a quick touch.

 

[leonreno]

Another update, this morning I used a digital probe thermometer to test pee water, it measured around 143-150 degrees, so that's good. Pulled hose to poppet valve off while running and it was flowing good. Also blee into poppet hose before and air went through ok, same with thermostat hoses. Seems like everything works ok but pressure is still between 5 and 9 psi at idle. Don't know if I should let it be or keep looking for an obstruction. Any thoughts anyone? Also, I used probe thermometer on head with a little dab of grease for conductivity, it measured around 150.

 

[leonreno]

Did a little more testing this afternoon. This is what I found. First, I noticed that the tell-tail peed very fast, faster than normal, usually have to wait a little for the thermostats to open. So, I pulled of the hose that comes from the thermostats where it enters the bottom of the block. Well, water started coming out of that barb fitting at a pretty good pace. So, I pulled the hose that comes from the top of the block and goes to the poppet valve, the water stopped coming out of the other hole. So water from the poppet valve hose goes through the poppet into the block and then out of the thermostat hose fitting at the bottom of the block. Is this normal? Pulled the hose from thermostat at top, water comes out, but not real fast. Water from poppet hose is really coming out pretty fast. Its perplexing me.