I'm in the process of converting from 1-piece manifolds to a set of Mercruiser and of replacing head gaskets. I'd like to pull my outdrive though and store it in the basement. Can I pull the outdrive and subsequently run the engine?
I'm getting ready to do the same thing - winterize the engine w/o the drive. <br /><br />This may be a dumb question, but is there a certain amount of water pressure you need when doing this? Or about the same / less/ more as when you're running muffs...
Thanks laddies - isn't the bell housing part of the outdrive? Are you saying that at the least, I have to leave the upper housing on? I'm still learning part terminology...
Assuming you have an Alpha drive, I would suggest you disconnect the hose that goes from the transom shield to the engine at the engine and adapt your water hose fittings to fit the connection at the engine. <br />Just sticking the hose in the drive bellhousing (Not engine bellhousing) sometimes doesn't work if there is too much leakage around the hose. Thats because there is no longer a pump to force the water through the engine.
What you need to do is adapt your hose to the diameter of the raw water inlet on the thermostat housing. It is a pretty large diameter hose, could be 3/4 in to an inch or so. If you had a 3/4 in diameter garden hose it may fit on the fitting. Pull off the hose on that fitting and measure the diameter.
Here's what I did. had the stuff but Lowes has it too. 3/4 inch CPVC pipe (6 inches) and a 3/4 inch slip to 3/4 inch thread adapter. Glue it up and wrap three or four wraps with black electrical tape on other end. Put two hose washers in the adapter and connect to hose. shove the tape wrapped end into the gimbal water hole and walla.
boatgrunt if you have the OMC V-6 I measured the raw water intake fitting on a spare thermo housing I have, it is 7/8" in diameter, so you might have to start with a 1" hose diameter and then adapt it down to 3/4" or so.
I have a 4.3 OMC. I actually did this yesterday...I had an old garden hose - cut the end of it off and it fit snugly right into the water intake. I dont know the diameter of the garden hose though, but I had to wiggle it in there. I turned up pressure just less than half way, no (minimal) leakage around the inlet. Just make sure that you dont have any kinks in your garden hose.
