Can I run engine with the outdrive removed?

'93 Mercruiser 350 Mag 5.7L with an Alpha 1 gen 2 outdrive

I need to pull my outdrive off to do replacement of the bellows, check and grease everything, etc. Some of you may remember I had a near sinking and you helped me get the engine taken care of. Well, I'm sure the bellows are full of water as well so I need to get that off of there so that I can replace and check for rust/wear on the joints and bearings.

My problem is that the bellows kit isn't in yet and it may get cold enough here this weekend that I need to winterize, etc. If so, I'll need to fog down the engine and all that. Can I run the engine without the outdrive installed? I assume there is simply a pick up pipe that carries the water from the outdrive through the transom and into the engine. Can I just stick a water hose there? Thanks in advance guys.

This is my first attempt to remove the outdrive myself.

Re: Can I run engine with the outdrive removed?

Yes, just stick the hose in the cooling water port in the bottom left of the picture.



Make sure the hose doesn't fall out while the engine is running...

When removing the outdrive, make sure you have put the throttle in forward.

Re: Can I run engine with the outdrive removed?

I have run mine without drive. I removed the thermostat housing water supply hose from power steering cooler pipe, inserted the garden hose, and piece of old inner tube wrapped around the garden hose and hose clamp to seal. There is probably a way to feed it back from the drive side, but this worked for me. I ran it for more than an hour this way.