My port engine overheated this saturday. Yeah, I lost 4 and a half rubber tabs off the port impeller. I replaced it and now the temp gauge cycles between 160* and 190* (160* thermostat). Those pieces of rubber are still in there and I'm gunna flush them out before the weekend.

I was told that the output of the impeller pump connects to a brass tube on the rear of the engine. Supposedly, this tube has honeycombs inside to keep big debris out of the engine. If I disconnect the hose at the pump and at the brass pipe I can flush out with a garden hose.

Does this sound right? I have 454 Mag MPI's w/bravo 1 drives

You have to reverse flush it. You need to disconnect the hose in front of the brass connector and the one from the pump to the brass connector. You probably will see the pieces laying in the connector as soon as you take the hoses off.

Thanks. That's what I thought.

When the end of my oil cooler started leaking on my 7.4/bravo, I found a ton of rubber almost blocking the input. The previous owner told me a new impeller was installed the following summer and I assume they didn't bother to remove the old pieces. Any other place I should look for a blockage? Also, when I went to change the oil in my sea water pump I found shavings on the bottom plug. Is this normal?

I disconnected every hose from the pump all the way to the thermostat. I then flushed everything. I did see one piece come out, but couldn't see the other ends since I was doing by myself. Put everything back together and had same problem. Temp would cycle between 160 and 180.

I scratched my head for a while and tried something else. The very first thing I did once the engine overheated was put in a new tstat. No merc places were open so I put in an auto 454 160* stat from a 70ish cadillac. Well, I took this auto tstat back out and put the old tstat in and low and behold the temp is rock solid where it should be.

So, after making love to my port engine all evening, I'm ready to run the Central Chesapeake Poker Run this Saturday.

Woooo Whooooo!

160* is still preddy hot to stick your johnson in!!!!