1995 OMC 4.3 Liter Operating temperatures

[Shade Tree boy]

Hello,

I recently purchased a beautiful 1995 Four Winns, Freedom. It has a 1995 OMC 4.3L GL engine with the cobra sterndrive. It runs great, shifts great, and has been well taken care of by it's previous owners. After I got it home, the first thing I did was to change out the impeller and thermostat. Everything ran fine before but I figured those were good preventative measures. Now the motor seems to run a little hot at idle. By hot I mean 160F to 180F. Once I throttle up the temperature steadily decreases to about 130F at WOT. As soon as I slow down to idle the temperature climbs back up to the 170F range. Are these temps normal? Is the temperature fluctuation normal?

 

[gsxrfixer]

Re: 1995 OMC 4.3 Liter Operating temperatures

thermostat is a 160 degree for these. So your close to normal. Keep your eye on the gauge. Mine is very close to the same readings. She'll read 170 then the thermostat opens and I can watch the gauge drop to 160( at idle only). Running it will drop to 140-150 degrees.

 

[Shade Tree boy]

Re: 1995 OMC 4.3 Liter Operating temperatures

Thanks for your reply. I think these temps are pretty normal too. I pulled the hose off the thermostat body to see if I was getting the specified 2 to 4 inch column of water. I wasn't at first, so I replaced the gasket inside the sea water pump. Amazingly that fixed the water column issue. I am now getting about 2 to 3 inches of water column at the thermostat housing. Just took the boat out today and she still wants to approach 160 at idle but doesn't get any hotter than that now. As soon as I throttle up, the gauge drops to about 125 to 135 at full throttle. I am much more comfortable with these temps.