Boat has twin 496HO's with Bravo X drives. With nose cones taped and hose hooked up to drive, water did not flow from either engine's exhaust tips. Is this common at idle with only garden hose water? Would things be different if boat was in lake? Boat has been winterized. Does that make a difference?

Thanks everyone.

How long did you let it run? It does take a more than a couple of seconds before it comes out of the tips on the hose, Well at least mine does but then it's fine

Do you have captains call exhaust ?

If so, are you getting any water discharging
out of the exhaust outlets on the lower
portion of the transom assembly ?
( near where the trim cylinders anchor)

I'm wondering if the selectors are closed.


Another thing,
Does it was a water shut off( sea cock) at the seawater inlet line ?,
if it does, is it opened ?

I've seen bad impeller doing this... as simple as that. Even on hoses!

It does have capt call. We flipped it open and closed. Did not make a difference. Let it run about 25 seconds. Even tried to "burp" the throttles a bit to get air out of sea pump. Water was not coming out of anywhere but around muffs. Was told that it would work at lake due to how the system is set up. Have not tried that yet.

if it hasnt run in a while,,,,, sometimes it takes longer then that to get flow through the motor

just noticed it was a 496,,,, closed cooling,,,, I would think the heat exchanger would be filled and fowing by that time.

Maybe an impeller going south.

When I hook mine to the hose I have water flowing out the exhaust before I ever start it.

Then when you fire it up it flies out the tail pipes.

As mentioned above, do you have the captain's choice turned on?

Only other problem would be an impeller, but even if it was back the pressure from the hose would push water through the system.

Does your temp alarm come on?

Sometimes if you hook a hose up at in a residential neighborhood, or on an older house you cannot get enough water volume to fully supply the cooling system. Have you noticed weather the hose is being sucked together. I have this problem at my house. If I hook it to a well or high volume supply, I have no preoblem. Also there is no problem at the lake.

Check you valves also. If it is not totaly cut off from fresh water pick up, then you are not getting proper water routing, and thus lower water flow.