What where your oil temps last year?

What is your current engine temp?

As a rule of thumb you usually replace the housing and plate on the seawater pump. Its not that much more. If you have good pressure you will be fine.

Try the 140f tstat. You may be suprised at the drop in oil temp. There is a direct correlation from my experience.

BT

my oil temps last year were the same as they are now,water temp is 160-180.i was thinking if the water temp is down with the lower t-stat the oil temp will drop also

my stock t-stat housing has no spring loaded check balls.is this normal?

I run my engines at 135-140 coolant just for the purpose of keeping the oil temps under 230f. I've done everything imaginable to get the oil temps right, but this is the only thing that made it so I can run hard for long periods of time. I used to be like you. 30 second shot then crack the hatch and let the oil temp drop. I even wiped out the mains on the sb engine one summer when I let temps get up to and over 300f. I have had no ill affects from running my engines at this coolant temp. They look great inside. This will be my 3rd summer running on this build and with the coolant and oil temps inline.

Pretty sure thats your problem. Check to see if yours is supposed to have them. If it is supposed to and doesn't, most of the water will bypass the engine and go straight to the exhaust.

I had a circ pump fail, and it had roughly the same effect.

how do i know if i should have the check balls?and if they were there why would they be missing

Look up your motor here and then click on thermostat or cooling when you get that far. They have the exploded views of the original merc manuals.

http://www.mercruiserparts.com/selec....asp?type_id=8

What he said . Check your plugs! What color are they? I found my sb's running lean after the switch to the ethanol. Upped the jets and metering rods 2 #'s , run 1 heat range cooler plugs. We'll see. I had 40-45 oil pressure when cold and after a short wot blast , 15-20 lbs pressure. Looked at the plugs and they were white! Hopefully now I'll see that nice golden brown!

now you guys got me woried about the ethanol thing.if i need metering rods where do i get them?and where are the jets on these carbs.had lots of holleys apart but never a q-jet