When I was doing the shift cable replacement, I noticed that the hoses that run from the t-stat to the exhaust manifolds looked old and they seemed kinda brittle, my question is, can I use auto heater hose? or is there a marine equivalant?, also I took the drain plugs off on the exhaust manifolds and found black gooylike sand like stuff, is this normal? I used some copper wire to probe/loosin up the crud, I think I got most of it out, could only get about 2" of the wire into the drain hole, my next question is, should I take the risers off the manifolds and check those water passageways? and I remember from another post, that there should be good metal between the rectangle holes and the main square hole in the manifolds,or am I opening a can of worms? I don't know the history on this boat engine, but in most aspects it looks like it was taken care of, one last question, when I had it out on the water this weekend, I noticed that the battery voltage was kinda low ( 12.5 - 13 volts )and the fish finder has an alarm for low voltage, and it was saying the same voltage read out, I checked the connections at the battery and on the alt. and the connections at the starter and they look to be tight & clean ( no corosion ), I'm thinking that the regulator my be bad, ( the alt. is a Paris-Rohlm 14V - 50 Amp unit ) looks like it is OEM, should I just replace it or is there a simple issue that is being over looked, the engine is a AQ225D - SN CU40153 - 1983 year
