I got her running in the barrel. I think the pump housing grommet was the issue she is now peeing and appears to be cranking and idling great thanks for the help
I have seen that grommet catch ( well I didnt actually have an eyeball on it but....) on the edge of the water pipe up to the motor and collapse inwards inside the pump outlet and block the pump outlet ......and then pop back into place when the lower unit was removed ah

gain so there was nothing to see . There was a big ...like 0.5mm burr on one side of the end of the water pipe (from where it was cut to length during manufacture ) that was causing the issue . I believe thats why the previous owner sold the motor ,because he couldnt figure out the erratic cooling issue . Yeah it was mine

. I wont bore you with the diagnostic process but once I had nutted it out ( at about 2am whilst staring at the bedroom ceiling wondering wtf ) I went straight to that burr ......I have never been so happy to find a bit of shoddy manufacturing



, and now that motor pisses hard enough to blow a small hole in my gravel driveway.