Re: [omc-boats] Tuning engine out of the water?

On Sun, 25 Jun 2006, Tom Kennedy wrote:
> OK I've got another question...when I bought my boat (68 Sportsman 155),
> it had been sitting for a number of years outside without being prepared
> for storage. To make a long story short, I'm rebuilding the carb among
> a bunch of other things. I don't have access to water where I can
> tinker with the engine for an extended period (public access nearby is
> all). SO is there any safe way I can run the engine/drive out of the
> water while I tune/time it? There is no garden hose adapter (can this
> be purchased and fitted?) and the universal earmuff-style garden hose
> adapters don't work on these things.
> What to other landlocked owners do when they need to run the engine for
> repairs? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

I've bought a plastic "radiator flush fill adaptor" for $3 from an auto
parts store and installed it in one of the hoses running from the
intermediate housing to an exhaust manifold. It's a "Y" that allows
you to hook up a garden hose and pump water directly into the coolant
system, into effectively the same spot as the OEM flush adaptors (mentioned
by others).

I'm always concerned about adjusting the flow correctly - too little
and you might starve the pumps, no much and the pressure might blow out
seals. I've never been sure how to do this properly, but I try to
adjust the valve so that I have a little water back-flowing out
the pickup during operation. Due to the restriction in the flush
fill adaptor I have, this is almost wide-open on the garden hose,
but an unrestricted adaptor would allow more flow. Or maybe this
isn't something to worry at all - I don't know.

The service manual also cautions against running the engine at high power
on a flush adaptor (though without resistance, you can't dissipate much
power anyway), and also against leaving it in gear for long periods of time
(since the shift solenoids are water-cooled through immersion of the lower
unit).

Ethan

-- 
<A HREF="http://www.engr.wisc.edu/~brodskye/"> Ethan Brodsky </A>
UW FutureCar Team Paradigm: Two-Year FutureCar Challenge Winner
UW-Madison Clean Snowmobile Team: Winner of the 2004 SAE CSC
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