Shah Mat

How many different low water pick-up Bravo's are there? Where do they pick up from? I assume I have one because the oil filler is behind the prop.
BUT..... I have a nose cone that was epoxied on by the previous owner. I'ver never seen what the front of my lower unit looks like. The nose cone has about a 1/2" hole in the point for water intake. Where does it go from there. Does it have gills? Just one hole? Could there be pockets between the cone and the drive where crap can clog?
Every once in a blue moon I pick up some hydrilla, mud or something when I'm idling to a dock. The sea strainer is clean but the water flow looks restricted coming into the strainer. I'm guessing crap is getting into the nose cone hole and restricting the intake in the drive. I have jumped into the water and shoved a coat hanger up the hole but it doesn't seem to clean out whatever is stuck it there. It happened last weekend and I had to idle (to keep the temp below 180) home. A few days later when I had it on the trailer I took the hose off the strainer and back flushed toward the drive with a garden hose. Water came out fine and nothing strange blew out. Ran the motor on the hose for a while and all seemed well. Took it to the river for the 4th and everything was back to normal. Good flow into the strainer and 140 temp at all speeds. I'm guessing that whatever (mud or sea grass) gets in there dries out and "self cleanses." This happens about once a year...

ANY IDEAS?????

Mr Gadgets

Shat Mat,
Merc has the lwp with slots under the bullet in the front and the dwp that has side vents and a series of holes in the front of the nose, they are much smaller.
You have a 1/2" hole in the front of your nose, doesnt sound good for water flow around the bullet. I would think it would cause some problems. When you put a nose cone on, there can be a cavity behind the cone. But usually that get filled with epoxy to glue it on. If you look into the hole, what do you see.. a series of small holes like a salt shaker or slots under the bullet? If you dont have any side slots, then I would suspect it is a LWP and had slots under the bullet that some one routed to from the hole in the front.
I used to run an 88 251 Convincer and all I ever had was the side pickup. You could drill the side holes, and plug that front one.. If you wanted to..

Hope this helps..

D*ck