I have been working on a friends outboard (88 special). It had a leak between the thermostat housing and the exhaust plate. I could not tell where it was coming from so I replaced both the two gaskets on the exhaust plate and install a new thermostat kit. Before I did the work I was running it on a hose. It seemed that the heads/cylinders were hotter than they should be. I don't have the tool to measure the actual temperature. I probably will hit harbor freight and pick up an infrared thermometer, One would burn your hand on the cylinders if you touched it for more than a second or 2. I was hoping that installing the thermostat kit would take care of that. Even with the new thermostat kit installed the motor seems hot to me. I have read some great threads on the cooling of this motor. I am still a bit confused on a couple of things. How does the hot water from the motor get down to the thermostats with the thermostats and poppets closed? There is a lot of spring tension on the poppets. What makes them open? What are the poppets for? I ran the motor with the two hoses that go to the thermostat housing disconnected. I had good flow and the heads/cylinders stayed cool. Thanks for all the great information that I was able to pull out of other threads. It is certainly a great resource for us DIY'ers.