Not warming up part 2

[further]

Finally got out today on our shakedown cruise. Everything worked great and motor ran beautifully. But... Wouldn't warm up past bout 130ish. Didn't have my ir gun with me but after cruising for bout 20 mins at 3500 rpms I was able to put my fingers on the tstat housing without burning. I know it wasn't warming where it should be. I had this problem a couple years ago and it turned out the bypass in the tstat housing was clogged. So naturally first thing I did when I got back home was remove the housing and check. Bypass seems clean, no chunks of anything. Housing has some rust on the walls but seems normal. Tested tstat in pot of water and opened between 160-170 and closed around 140. I'm at a loss as to why it's not warming to 160. Not sure if this has anything to do with it but are the manifold hoses supposed to be full of water? When I pulled the hoses off the housing, there was no water in them... Interior of hoses wet tho so maybe just drained back down into the manifolds? Any thoughts/ideas?
Thanks

 

[bnicov]

Take the t stat housing off again, REALLY check the small passages. There could be a small bit of old impellor wedged right in there.

 

[further]

Yep I took it off again and tried cleaning it out. All passages seemed clean but I remembered that this was one of the only components that I replaced on this motor with a non OEM part. Not sure if that's what it was but I ended up finding an OEM housing at a local marina, threw it on and problem solved. This is the housing that was causing me problems when I first installed two years ago and found that the bypass was clogged with a sand like substance possibly leftover remnants from the casting process. Another reason to always use OEM with these motors.

 

[Mnoverboard]

Agreed.