1987 mercury xr2 150

i just recently purchased a friends boat, and when i hooked the hose and stuff up to it yesterday, thier was not a stream of water coming out of it, anywhere.. this is my first boat so im not to sure of where to even start.. so any help at all would be greatly appreciated.. thanks in advance..

Re: 1987 mercury xr2 150

Marchosia said:

i just recently purchased a friends boat, and when i hooked the hose and stuff up to it yesterday, thier was not a stream of water coming out of it, anywhere.. this is my first boat so im not to sure of where to even start.. so any help at all would be greatly appreciated.. thanks in advance..

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Did you have it in a tank, or supplied with water from a flushing cuff?

If so, your water pump is bad, or the cooling system is plugged up with something. (a sand bar strike, perhaps.) You should have a little telltale stream coming from the rear of the engine, and quite a bit of water coming out of the propeller.

If you're going to work on your engine, get a manufacturer's shop manual first.

hope it helps
John

Re: 1987 mercury xr2 150

yea i had it on the cuff thing.. but thier was water coming out of the propeller but no kind of stream coming out anywhere, but it was only cranked for about 10 or 15 seconds, cause iw asnt so sure about it..

Re: 1987 mercury xr2 150

Take a coat hanger and clean out the bug nest in the little hole in the back of the motor so it can pee.

Shade tree tests: If water is coming out of the prop, it's pumping. If you can hold your fingers on the head for a few seconds, it's cooling. If you get burned, it's hot. If you can leave your fingers there, it probably needs thermostats, or there's a stick stuck in the poppit.

BTW, the only water that gets to the telltale is water that goes through the thermostat. If the supplied water is pretty cold, and the engine's not pulling, it might be little, sporadic, or even none at all and be perfectly normal.

About the only thing the telltale is good for is after you start up, and the pressure gauge starts registering, (if you don't have a pressure gauge, get one.) you look back to see the telltale before you blast off to make sure the engine is warm enough to not cold seize.

hope it helps
John

Re: 1987 mercury xr2 150

My motor takes about 15-30 seconds before the water flows from the telltale when running on a cuff, which I believe is normal.

Re: 1987 mercury xr2 150

alright, well i took a gym clip and bent it and cleaned out the hole, an after i did that only a little water was coming out, and could touch the engine but it got hot after about 45 seconds with it running.. that was with the engine set in a trashcan filled with water.. so could the water pump have something to do with it or does it sound like the problem is else where.. cause i dont know

Re: 1987 mercury xr2 150

MAybe a impeller or pump issue. MY merc of that era has a stream that shoots about 2-3 feet out the back! It really beats the tell tale on my old mans old 88 rude! I love the older merc tell tales!

Re: 1987 mercury xr2 150

While a pressure gauge would help in troubleshooting this problem, even without such a gauge the below troubleshooting guide may still give you some ideas as to what the possible culprit(s) may be. I hope it helps.

Re: 1987 mercury xr2 150

well my father has ordered a manual for it, thats suppose to be here either tonight or tomorrow, so if we cant figure it out witht that then we will probably just take it to nearest place an just have them look at it but thanks everyone for all the help

Re: 1987 mercury xr2 150

that was with the engine set in a trashcan filled with water..

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I have always used a muff and a hose on my 150hp motor. I never ran it in a trash can. I always thought that a 150hp OB was too big for a trash can because the volume of exhaust from the prop area might interupt the water flow into the water pickup area. I may be wrong and perhaps someone on this forum can confirm that a trash can is OK for a 150hp. If you don't get that confirmation, I would suggest running the motor on a hose/muff first before spending big money on a costly mechanic to troubleshoot the problem.

Also, installing a water pressure gauge yourself is easy and it does not cost very much. Using it to troubleshoot the problem might save you a much greater expense of going to a costly mechanic.

Just my thoughts... and I mean no offense to the knowlegable costly mechanics out there.

Re: 1987 mercury xr2 150

haha well after talking to my brothers friend he said that it sounds like a water pump problem.. so today im going to buy the water pump and put it on this afternoon so we'll see what happens

Re: 1987 mercury xr2 150

But i was just wanting to thank everyone who helped out and replied, we got it running and water is now coming out of the hole and is not running hot so.. thank you everyone for all the input..