apollard,

Thanx so much! I'll crawl behind my engine, pull off the hose and fitting to take a look. Hopefully this is my problem. Spending a mere $1.99 for a fix would be a refreshing change.

Well, put everything back together, and no good..I didn't put my hose back on yet, annd hit the water on the muffs...Shouldn't it have flowed up to the fitting at least? It didn't...Acted like it was blocked..I put the garden hose up top and back flushed, and water came out of the pickups...I have run the boat with a hose just shoved in the hole for the intake before I put the drive on, and it ran good...What the heck could be blocked in the drive??? Doesn't look like there's anything in there..Plus, it back flowed when I had the hose on it...Pull the drive and run a hose to a bucket from the intake to see if it will suck out of a bucket? Help??

I, too, pulled off the elbow fitting at the transom to find the plastic insert collapsed; I can't even get my pinkie finger through it. Bravo fever is real! Unfortunately, there is only 1.5inches of clearance in front of the plastic insert and I can't figure out how to remove that insert. It looks to me like the drive has to be removed to get to it; it doesn't seem possible from inside the boat. I'm taking it to the shop tomorrow and letting a pro finish the job for me (I don't have the ability to pull a 200lb B3 by myself).

Den P.:

I was so sure I had this problem solved until I read your post. I can't imagine what could be blocking your water flow in one direction but not block in the opposite direction. I do not believe anything small enough to enter the pickup holes on the drive would also be large enough to block the water passages inside the drive case in a single direction only (like a loose piece of rubber or wood or something).

Have you tried to flow water through the drive with the drive unmounted from the boat? Maybe turning it upside down on the muffs or laying it on its side will dislodge whetever is in there. Maybe you can prove to yourself that the passage is really open and you simply can't build enough head pressure with your muffs/hose to force water up the two-foot section from the pickup to the outlet at the transom plate.

As a last resort you might consider hiring a mechanic with a borescope or a plumber with a flexible 'snake' camera to take a look inside the water passages and see if there is in fact some debris or a collapsed section or something.

Please keep us updated, and good luck!

Well, the saga continues. Glad I have another boat ha ha! Swapped the lines on the pump..Think I had them backwards. Also noticed the connector for the flush device wasn't tight. trimmed some of the old hose off the intake line between the transom and the pump. Pulled the hose off the hydro cooler, and fired it up..I now have water flow out of the pump..Not alot tho. Wondering if it's a muff thing. Tomorrow, I'm going to drop it in the water and see if that improves. Gonna get a new intake hose as well, as the old one is being a *%#@ going on all the way. Just nothing ever good about old rubber ha ha! i should have pretty good volume coming out of that pump if it's working properly I would think. Not enough coming out now to keep things cool, that's for sure. If none of this works, I'll pull the drive and replace that hose, and all of the seals in the drive, although, it seems like if the boat is in the water, it would plug any air gaps behind the transom..Hmm..maybe my pump housing is shot..Didn't look bad tho...grrrr.......Anyone know for sure if the intake hose on this pump is on the top? Pretty sure that's right for a right hand rotation..To be continued...

Mountainstone, what ever happened with your boat?

No change...Did I smoke another &^*%ing impeller? Water just barely flowing out. I've drank beer faster than that...Speaking of which...

My boat was definitely a victim of 'bravo fever.' I was able to remove the hose and elbow at the transom to see/feel that the plastic insert inside the hose was collapsed. I could also see that the drive would have to be removed in order to change that insert so I took it to a shop to have that done. The mechanic said there was a 1/4" of corrosion between the outside of the plastic insert and the inside of the hose, which had collapsed the plastic insert. He replaced the hose and the insert and I got the boat back last week. We took it out on Friday and it ran perfectly, never getting above 175 degrees all day.

hmmm... now im thinking
neighbors maxum i toyed with all last summer.
efi 350 chevy, b3 drive... his drive was completely plugged with salt, not a drop of water would pass.. so i used clr(like a drain cleaner) to blow through it... fixed that.
replaced the s/w pump(complete assembly) it was shot.
new manifolds and risers(they hydro'd the motor on him)
i cleaned the tubes of the heat exchanger, replaced t stat.. on plane she overheats... 190*. i even installed a mechanical gauge to check... yup 190*.
i have blackflushed everything from the manifolds back... still has the high temp issue..

will this plastic piece also cause this? if it sucks air on plane i would think that on the hose with 60psi that i'd see an external leak, but doubtful with all of that water spraying out of the muffs and exhaust outlets... ?

The problem is the corrosion that accumulates between the outside of the plastic insert and the inside of the rubber hose, which collapses the plastic insert and restricts flow. If you had enough salt to plug the drive (never heard of that before) you very likely had enough to corrode the plastic piece in question. Mine was easy to check, it was just hard to replace. I recommend you check it since we boat in the same water (my boat has spent its whole ten-year life in Puget Sound).

thanks... the neighbor used to leave it in the water all summer, then never rinse it.... the drive is really corroded, the skeg is gone......
i will check that plastic piece.

thanks much!