Saturday with the 73 Bayflite

[TrailRated]

Today's maintenance procedures went very well. Changed oil and filter.. Gear oil.. And new impeller.. Once the muffs were on we got the engine running and it sounded real good. This was my first time doing any maintenance on a boat engine and there was one thing I noticed.. When running the engine with muffs is the temperature gauge going to read anything? The needle never left bottom. Grounding the sending unit with the engine off to the block sent the needle to 240 degrees I think it is? I am just wondering if the temp. sending unit is bad or if it is typical for no reading to show while using muffs?

[Bayflite73]

Glad it ran smooth. And a feeling the impeller would look something like that!

Oh I did get your message but it was a crazy day chasing the boys around.

There should have been extra plugs plus that new one we bought in that box of parts that included that other prop.

[Rich_V174SS]

Whether running on the muffs or on the lake shouldn't affect the running temperature of the engine. I suspect your engine is either missing a thermostat or it may be stuck open and should be replaced. The thermostat is needed to regulate the engine temperature regardless of how water is fed to it so the engine should still reach operating temperature.

[TrailRated]

Josh - I did figure out to shut that one drain valve and install one of those brass plugs into the other engine hole.These must be the drains for winterizing the boat, correct? Do you know anything about this temperature gauge? Is there a thermostat in there? Kind of looks like there would be one right in front of the engine at the top.

[Jason]

That engine has 3 drains. One on the port side of the boat off the side of the block, one on the bottom side of the intake/exhaust manifold, and one on the side of the exhaust riser manifold.

My temp gauge reads temp off the hose. If your water pump was that bad maybe it was not pumping any water to the temp gauge to read??? Might not hurt to replace the thermostat anyway.

[Bayflite73]

Sorry to not be much help temp gauge wise. I remember it reading something and never having it read anything to be worried about.

[Jason]

Should run at 140 all the time.
Napa sells a lot of marine stuff. You might be able to get one from them.