Re: [OMC-Boats] 1ST RUN CHECKLIST

On Tue, 16 Jun 2009, Lee Shuster wrote:
> TEMPO Marine Products did (in the 60's & 70's) make a water pickup hose
> adaptor that you may still run across as NOS on eBay or in former OMC
> dealer inventories. I'll dig thru my junk and try and find a part number.
> Ditto for the OMC end-cap hose adaptor. both pretty hard to come across
> these days.
> But Bill and Andy's water barrel methods work just as good and the have
> the advantage of providing a little exhaust muffling, which the neighbors
> always appreciate.

I have what I believe to be one of the Tempo pickup adaptors, though I had
a lot of trouble getting it to work. It seemed to suck in a lot of air, so
I had to have a lot of hose pressure to ensure a good stream of water
coming out of the tattletale. I've also been looking for a tilt cap
adaptor for years, but have never seen one go for a good price on ebay.

I'll offer up a 4th suggestion though - which is something I've been doing
for five years now with good success. Buy a cheap radiator flush adaptor
<$10) from an auto parts store. Install the "T" in one of the supply lines
going from the intermediate housing to an exhaust manifold. For normal
operation, leave the cap on the T, and when you want to run the engine in
your driveway, install the hose adaptor onto the T and hook up a hose.
This will supply water to the engine and exhaust and also "back-feed" it
through the system to the lubricate the outdrive water pump.

Turn it up just enough that water is dripping out both the pickup (the
screen on the front of the outdrive) and the exhaust hole. I'm able to
turn my hose to full blast, but my flush kit has a rubber restrictor in the
hose adaptor, so that limits the flow. If you don't have a restrictor, be
careful about turning it up too high, as excessive pressure could force
water into bad places (past seals into outdrive oil, back into cylinders by
overfilling the exhaust manifolds, etc...). I generally turn the water on
pretty gently at first, then, once I start the engine, turn it on just
enough to get a good stream from the tell-tales (which tells me I have
as much pressure as the engine normally has).

I've been using this for five seasons now and probably several hours of
engine operation out of water with no noticable problems yet. To be fair I
don't have a temperature gauge and haven't inspected my water pump in that
time (it's coming apart this winter), but nothing has broken yet. The kits
are under $10 and you can leave it installed indefinitely. I think this
one would work - I don't remember what brand I have:
  http://www.prestone.com/products/print.php?fam=12&num=2&name=Prestone+R+Flush+N+Fill+Kit&regTM=1
(note that mine didn't come with the long yellow plastic piece on left, but
I'm assuming that is an extra unnecessary piece).

Ethan

-- 
<a href="http://www.engr.wisc.edu/~brodskye/"> Ethan Brodsky </a>