Trinkle from water cooling outlet

slimtim · 16 June 2006, 22:00

Managed to get my motor started tonight after about a year and a half (last time it was running was when it was demonstrated to me).

It fired up well after about the 4th time and she seems to sound ok. She started off with an ok (ish) stream coming from the tell tail but this turned to virtually nothing.

I was running her in a big tub with only the lower intakes below the water. There may have been a chance it sucked it something very small into the intake but when I took the intake grates off, the paint was flaking off so this may be more likely.

Assuming there is something lodged in the pipework somewhere, how the hell do i get it out?!! What else could be the problem? I don't really want to have pull the lower leg off to check the water pump.

Any suggestions welcome!

BogMonster · 16 June 2006, 22:13

On mine you can take the telltale out and jam a hosepipe in there to flush it the other way - might be worth trying? There is a proper fitting but a hose pipe is near enough the right size

Mine sounds like a bag of bolts with the prop (and therefore exhaust) out of the water so it would be hard to tell if anything was wrong

Hightower · 16 June 2006, 22:15

I would check the easy things first Tim. The tell tail seem like a place to start, take it off and check for a blockage, might be somethings stuck in the jet.

Are you close to your first Sea trial?

slimtim · 16 June 2006, 22:19

can't see how to get the tell tail off which is a bit annoying. There is a big screw on the leg labelled "wash" which I spose is the facility to plug a hose pipe in. Trouble is, it doesn't look like it wants to come out without a fight!

Andy, I'm close yes as long as this engine problem isn't too major.

Ribald · 16 June 2006, 22:24

use a pipe cleaner up the tell-tale hole first

slimtim · 16 June 2006, 22:28

the other thing I forgot to mention was that the engine seemed to get quite warm (warm to touch) very quickly and the tell tail water was luke warm. I'm sure this never happened on my old 25hp yammy...is it just because its a bigger engine? 70hp tohatsu.

I will try the pipe cleaner thing, thanks!

Hightower · 16 June 2006, 22:33

Yep my tell tail water stream is warm. As for the tell tail, stick something up it and wiggle it around a bit.

OceanEco · 17 June 2006, 02:43

iF YOU HAVE ACCESS TO A COMPRESSOR A LITLE AIR USUALLY DOES THE TRICK A COUPLE OF SHORT BLASTS. MAKE SURE TO TAKE THE TELL TALE TUBE OFF WHERE IT PASSES THRU THE SIDE OF THE LEG SO YOU CAN BLOW OUT THE CR*P.

tim griffin · 17 June 2006, 06:39

Strimmer wire from your Dads garden strimmer should do the trick

Alice · 17 June 2006, 08:07

I think that'd I'd be having a look at the impellor first. How long has it been laid up? Was it properly flushed before laying up and do you know when the impellor was last changed? I'd say that it was unlikely to have sucked up crap in a barrel of tap water.

slimtim · 17 June 2006, 09:21

I bought the engine I think about a year and a half ago and that was when it was last run. She was run in the tank a fairweather marine, so I guess not salt water but probably far from ideal. I can't remember if the impellor was changed before I bought it or not.

I'll have a poke with some wire and see what happens.

Tim

Mr-d · 17 June 2006, 14:22

Tim, did you see the pictures in my thread

How old is this engine?

I found little bits of rubber and salt crystals blocking up most holes in my water jacket.

Alex-341 · 18 June 2006, 10:11

If youve got salt crystals in there then you should get into the habbit of flushing it out.

slimtim · 18 June 2006, 10:16

thanks for the replies guys.

Mr-d, i'll check out your thread. The engine is a '96 model so not quite as old as yours!

zodiac rover. I always wash my engines out after use, its just that this one is new to me so I don't know how well its been washed out before.

Yesterday I found some strimmer wire and poked it up the tell tail. felt some resistance and then a load of water came out. Ran the motor again and there was more water coming out, but not as much as I would expect. Went to ask my local tohatsu engineers and they said there probably isn't supposed to be that much coming out anyway so I reckon its fine. Just needs a real good blast in the solent.

Thanks for all your help.

Tim

Jimbob · 18 June 2006, 16:34

We had the same problem with our engine when we first got it as it had been stood for sometime and a guess that all the salt had not been cleaned out when it was flushed.

i found that the telltail hole would block up a few times, but once cleared a few times it was OK. its useful if you can get the telltail off so you can remove as forcing it back may mean it ends up blocking again.

Nos4r2 · 18 June 2006, 17:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimbob

We had the same problem with our engine when we first got it as it had been stood for sometime and a guess that all the salt had not been cleaned out when it was flushed.

i found that the telltail hole would block up a few times, but once cleared a few times it was OK. its useful if you can get the telltail off so you can remove as forcing it back may mean it ends up blocking again.

If your take-off for the telltale is on the bottom of the block then backflush it with water for a bit longer and you'll see a load of crap come out of the prop centre with the water.

antiqueboy · 21 June 2006, 20:48

my telltale is fine when being flushed with a little poking,but lasts about 5 mins in the solent before blocking again, the hole is not large and the smallest peice of crap blocks it, anyone know the effects of drilling the hole out a little?
last time i flushed it,it appeared lumpy, as if it had cyrstals in, and it has been suggested that it may have a build up from the previous owner, it is also warm/hot and i always back flush it first.
not that realy helps you....

Alex-341 · 21 June 2006, 21:56

Dont know about the suzis but the telltale on the yam is allways cold.

slimtim · 21 June 2006, 22:22

Had my local mechanic round today. Top bloke.

anyway, he reckons my engine is overheating slightly. First thing for me to do is take the thermostat out and check it in some hot/cold water. If thats ok, then I got to check the water pump (apparently old tohatsu 70s may have had a problem with their pump and housing which meant they needed replacing every year).

There is plenty of water coming out of the lower cooling water exits just above the ventilation plate which I'm hoping suggests the water pump is working ok as it has to pump the water up the leg and then let it come back down again before coming out of this hole. I reckon the thermostat might be stuck resulting in the cooling water bypassing the block and pissing out the bottom which I guess would explain why my tell tail is weak and why it is overheating.

slimtim · 23 June 2006, 07:30

Last night I took the thermostat out and tested it in hot water. All seemed to be working ok. In the thermostat housing there seemed to be a fair amount of salt and sand so cleaned all that out and gave the thermostat a good scrub.

Thinking that this wouldn't make much difference, I connected it all back up and ran the engine again and the tell tail had even less water coming out of it! Took the small pipe off the tell tail and found it was semi blocked with sand. Fired a hose through it and re-ran the engine with the pipe sticking straight out of the cowling, bypassing the tell tail outlet. With the pipe now connected to the tell tail outlet I get a good stream of water and the block doesn't get nearly as hot.

All I need to do now is adjust the mix and idle screws on the carbs.