Overheat/cooling question

JohnWI

Seaman
Joined
Sep 14, 2011
Messages
73
The other night my temp horn sounded and I immediately shut down. My engine was warm from running before and I was maybe only running at 2500-3500 RPMs for 5 minutes when the horn went off. Because it was pretty late, I just decided to MinnKota myself back to the launch. It definitely took me 1/2 hour or maybe more, so it cooled down.

Initially at the time, I only saw a couple of weeds that (perhaps) came off my intake (not tons like on my JetSki) so I didn't think that was serious enough to be the culprit.

At the dock, as I was cool, I started and idled for at least 5 minutes. The tell tale was strong, and not really even warm to the touch. The flat side of the powerhead was cool to maybe luke warm.

So my questions are:
1. How long do you need to idle to get the engine up to a hot temp? I think the manual is stating 125-165 is the normal operating range. I'd like to try her at idle at the dock rather than going back to the middle of the lake.

2. I think the SM says you should be idling IN GEAR to do the temp test. What??? Is there some issue with just idling in N instead of F?

3. Where does the water flow, additionally, when the thermostat opens? I can't tell by the diagram in the service manual? I was frazzled from another issue that night (I either bumped a rock or am starting with slow speed dog issues )but I thought my tell tale was OK before the horn went off. Unfortunately, I can't remember 100%.

4. When I get around to doing my water pump, because I'm an 84, is that all I need to do? I see that on some later models they re-route the tell tale and some other stuff to avoid an "air lock" that occurs but the tell tale still works but the vapor won't fire up the horn if over heated.
 
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