1994 Johnson 30hp overheating problem Help?

I have a 1994 J30ELERM. I will try to explain what happened and what steps have been taken. When running about half throttle it stopped pumping water. I immediately shut it off and raised the motor. When restarted it pumped water, but not as hard as I thought it should. After a few minutes it quit and smoke rolled out of the engine cover due to some wires melting. I fixed the wires and replaced the entire pump (housing, insert, impeller, key, plate, seals, gasket and spacer tube) as the old one had melted. When started, it pumped water at higher rpm?s only. I took it to a Marine shop and he replaced the thermostat, cover and gasket. He checked the compression and it read 95-101. The motor was still overheating. He was afraid to remove the exhaust cover because the bolts may break and would have to charge me to remove them. Since I am on a budget and did not want to put a lot of money in an old motor I brought the motor home. I replaced the two gaskets under the exhaust cover. I removed the powerhead and replaced the gasket between the powerhead and the exhaust tube. I discovered the rubber grommet in the exhaust tube was missing. I replaced the grommet. I removed the lower unit, the impeller looked good and water tube was clear. I put back together and started the motor, the water was spitting at idle and pumping good at high idle. The cylinder head was still overheating and the cylinder head gasket was leaking water. I took off the cylinder head and noticed the lower port was clogged with debris (looked like charcoal, I assume it was the old exhaust tube grommet). I cleaned the port and blew air thru the head, replaced the gasket and reassembled. When started the water pumps good at idle, no leaks but still overheating (180 degrees after several minutes). Sorry for the long explanation but do not know what else to do? Could the deflectors in the cylinder head be melted and causing the water to not circulate right? They appeared okay from the outside but did have a gap towards the powerhead where water could pass thru. Any advice and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Re: 1994 Johnson 30hp overheating problem Help?

Did you check for warping of head?
does it overheat at highspeed?

My 60hp overheats after several minutes at idle so i then need to increase rpm, i think mine may be a timing/lync and sync issue in case that gives you more direction to look in such as is your timing base going back to the idle stop. My cable is too worn so it doesnt, if i adjust it to touch the idle stop, the warm up throttle doesnt work

Re: 1994 Johnson 30hp overheating problem Help?

I did check and the head was not warped. However I think I found the problem. This motor has 3 deflectors. Mine only had one and probalbly two bad ones. I changed them and ran it for 20 minutes without overheating. Before it overheated in 5 minutes. Thanks for the reply.