Well after a few days and absolutely mind-blowing support from Brian, Jeff and the rest of the group, our over-heating problem has been solved!
Posted about the problem a couple days ago; within an hour Brian calls me up and says he can come over the next day to help troubleshoot do all the work. He pulled off hoses systematically until we verified that the thermostat was good, the hoses weren't clogged and water just wasn't getting pumped around the system with enough pressure to get into the upper manifolds. We agreed that the water pump was the likely problem and called a mechanic to set up a time to fix it (hopefully) before the meet.
Cut to last night, an hour after Brian had left; Jeff calls me and says he can help me replace the water pump the next day (today)! I take the boat over there around 7:30PM, within a half hour Jeff has the entire lower unit off and we discover the little beauty in the picture below. "There's your problem", says Jeff. The piece of melted goo in the photo is supposed to look more like a 4" section of really thin PVC. I thought, "Oh crap, we need a marine part and it's 8:00 at night, no way that's happening tonight." Well, Jeff happens to have one in a box in new condition. He puts it in no problem and it looks like everything's gonna work out after all. Turns out that when that part melted, it also expanded the plastic around the upper water pump housing, so this stock part wasn't going to fit right, and would clearly still leak water..
Oh well...
But wait! Jeff has a brand new upper water housing unit as well, he pulls it out of the box as my jaw hits the floor. How did he have every part we needed? No marina in town has ever matched that kind of inventory! He puts it all together and everything fits back in place like it was supposed to. We fill up the lower unit oil, put on the muffs, and fire her up.. takes a while but eventually it turns over. Run it on the muffs for a while and the temp guage (which Jeff had tested earlier and verified was working) still wouldn't budge. He pulls and tests the sender, everything checks out; but that's the only possible answer left. Jeff suggests we go to the local auto parts store and grab a new one just to be sure, ~$10. I reallize, in my hurry to get out there after work today, I forgot to bring my wallet. "Not a problem, I'll get it; I just want to get this thing working," was Jeffs response. Wow.
I cannot express how greatful Mike, Liz and I are for the groups (especially Brian and Jeff's) help with getting the new boat squared away, properly checked out, and repaired when needed, for the meet. We still have a bit of a carb/old fuel problem and can't quite idle out, but hopefully tomorrow on the lake with some Sea Foam can fix that. If not, I'll try the mechanic route to get things good to go by Friday. But the main point; the companionship and outpouring of support from this club is really something special, and I can't wait to see you all in Red Wing!
Thanks again
Scott, Mike and Liz
