Overheat alarm sounded while winterizing 94 Force 120

[ggundersen3]

I had overheat problems with this motor over the summer, spent over $1000 at a dealer who finally solved the problem(major teardown). It starts, runs, idles great, accelerats great,no overheat alarm ever again the rest of the summer. Now, when winterizing it, it ran great on the garden hose/ear muffs with water hose spicket valve wide open and discharges alot of water out of telltale holes, but when switching it over to the tank of red marine antifreeze only a trickle discharges out of telltale and after a minute or 2 the overheat alarm sounded again even though antifreeze was flowing.
A couple questions here:
1- Is it simply being starved of coolant because of that little hose running from he tank to the earmuffs/intakes is too restrictive?
2. Have I damaged anything? Because it was maybe 60 to 90 seconds of alarm sounding as I was spraying fogging oil in carb when it sounded and I continued until fogging oil stalled motor.
3. Can I no longer use tank/hose to get antifreeze through motor but instead need to to submerge entire lower half of motor in a large tank of marine antifreeze?
Answers/ideas/solutions much appreciated here!.

 

[jerryjerry05]

You probably didn't hurt anything.
But in the spring change the impeller.
The hose sends enough water up into the impeller and primes the pump.

Once the hose is gone, the lower unit needs to be deep enough in a bucket to
cover the cavitation plate by 3-4"

Next time 5gal bucket, hose fitting in the lower side of the bucket.
Short piece of hose to the muffs.
Pinch the hose until the flow is needed.
Duct tape muffs in place and seal the edges.

Pink stuff in the bucket, Set bucket up even with the bottom
of the trim pump, fire the motor and unpinch the hose.
As the bucket empty's fog the motor.
You don't have to kill the motor with the fogger.
When the bucket empty's, kill the motor.

 

[ggundersen3]

Thanks Jerry Jerry. Its good to know you dont think I damaged anything by running it for 60-90 seconds with overheat alarm sounding. Thanks for the advice/tips on a better way to winterize (get red antifreeeze to flow in). Also thanks for the advice that I dont have to fog it til it stalls, I always thought I needed to.
The major work I just had done in summer included a new water pump housing and impeller. Do you still think the impeller should be changed already? Could I have damged the impeller? The boat went to storage today so I cant do anything til April 1st.

 

[Tassie 1]

April??
crikey....

 

[jerryjerry05]

90 seconds running dry can melt the blades.
Me??? I'd change it. $20 is cheap insurance.

 

[Scott Danforth]

no need to attempt to suck AF up in an outboard. outboards are self-draining

you toasted your impeller and wasted money on AF

 

[ggundersen3]

OK. Thanks for all the information and advice guys. Much appreciated. .

 

[SkiDad]

you didn't harm anything, the overheat comes on pretty low temp. I also doubt you ruined the impeller either at idle speed b/c you had some flow.

I agree with Scott - no need for antifreeze in an outboard. I fogged mine once but that is also a waste of time on a 2 stroke engine if you run it all summer - enough oil is on everything. if you only boat 3x a year then i would fog.

- tilt engine to vertical
- check lower unit oil by cracking the drain screw open just a bit and see if any water comes out. If you just get oil you are good
- pray for an early spring

 

[ggundersen3]

Thanks Skidad! Thanks alot!

 

[jerryjerry05]

90 seconds with out water?
Unless it's one of the impellers that can be run dry ?
I'd change it.

 

[ggundersen3]

When I take the motor cover off I see 2 electrical leads with what looks like factory molded connecters not connected to anything. A local source told me those are for connecting an engine temperature guage. Is that correct? If not what are they and how much work is it to connect a temp guage, I'm thinking I'd want to do that so I can see actual engine temp.

 

[jerryjerry05]

I answered in your other post but will add this.

The wiring harness used on your motor is also used on probably
50 other motors.
Some of those will have the loose connectors used on other things.
Some V-6's have double thermostats and senders for the overheat system.

 

[ggundersen3]

OK a follow up here. Boat just came out of winter storage. I started it on the flush attachment/earmuffs and garden hose with the water full wide open. Started, ran it for quite a while at idle, revved it up but then return to idle, no overheat alarm, steady flow of warm(but not scalding hot) water from tell tale holes and down below from exhaust discharge(middle of prop). Seems ok. It appears nothing got damaged. However, lesson learned here!

 

[roscoe]

Sorry, but that tells you nothing.
The water pressure from the garden hose alone would be enough to push water through the powerhead, even if you had no impeller in the water pump.

Test it in a barrel, or in the lake.

 

[jerryjerry05]

The hose pressure isn't enough to push past the impeller.
Now if there was no impeller?? Then it would have enough pressure.

Put it in the water and run it.
Then check the temps on the motor.

A new impellers cheap insurance.$20 Change it.

 

[ggundersen3]

Yup. Thats next. Thanks

 

[VivaLaMigra]

Just wondering why you'd worry about putting antifreeze into an outboard motor? As long as it's upright, it's self-draining so the powerhead won't freeze. That's why it's safe to run an outboard in freezing conditions like duck hunting or commercial use. In those conditions, the motor should be left DOWN all the time so it'll drain. Now, if you're at all worried about residual water in the block, why not just pull the plug for the temperature sensor or the tell-tale fitting and pump some antifreeze in there? I've had outboards for forty years and NEVER ONCE put antifreeze in one. The water will drain out.

 

[ggundersen3]

SO weather here finally allowed me to get it on the lake. Ran fine. No overheat. Ran it for an hour, Idle, higher rpm, WOT, back to idle. All OK now. Thanks for all the info.