optimax 90 hp tell tale (impeller good)

[a70eliminator]

Helping my friend with a 90 hp optimax, it starts right up on muffs but we see no tell tale, motor idles for 10 mins and maybe just get a little trickle from tell tale, lots of water at the prop outlet. Pull lower and inspect impeller, looks good, made sure lock key is properly inserted and spin impeller clockwise into housing and reassembled, still no water at tell tale, looks like the hose from tell tale comes from bottom of starbird head and is not plugged. What am I missing here, the waterpump outlet appears to fit nice into rubber boot inside the upper housing, I even tried to stick the garden hose into that and blast water directly into the watertube but still nothing from tell tale, I can hold my hand on the engine block and heads and only feel warm not overheating, does water only spit from tell tale when engine reaches temp? maybe 10-15 mins at idle not enough to get hot?

 

[Lone Duck]

Re: optimax 90 hp tell tale (impeller good)

Did you check where the water tube enters the block ? Might have come loose when you removed the lower end.

 

[woody66912]

Re: optimax 90 hp tell tale (impeller good)

a70, good flow out of the prop does tell you that it is pumping, by your impeller install you you did it right. Trying to force water though a cooling system with the thermostats closed will result in a reduced flow of water, I think what your problem is, that the muffs you are using do not seal good enough. If I'm right the muffs that you have are a very hard rubber type?. One of too ways, either submerge the l/u . Or with the muffs installed, just push them tight to the water pick up's.

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: optimax 90 hp tell tale (impeller good)

a70, good flow out of the prop does tell you that it is pumping, by your impeller install you you did it right. Trying to force water though a cooling system with the thermostats closed will result in a reduced flow of water, I think what your problem is, that the muffs you are using do not seal good enough. If I'm right the muffs that you have are a very hard rubber type?. One of too ways, either submerge the l/u . Or with the muffs installed, just push them tight to the water pick up's.

Thanks for the replies. I did submerge it in a big trash barrel right up to the cavitation plate with same results, the only thing I can even doubt is the gasket on the stainless plate, the plate separated easily and the gasket was completely intact so I just reassembled as is. The jist of the whole episode was to show my friend where the waterpump was and how it worked, ect ect . guess it turns out I'm not a very good teacher lol, shoulda just left it alone.