Re: water comming from pee hole? warm or cold?
A Merc running 143 degree thermostats will feel hot.
Good point. Even 120-130 F feels pretty hot too. It's defintely way beyond "lukewarm" (which I think would be around 100F or less).
I think 105F in a hot tub would be considered getting uncomfortable, 110F would be super hot, just to put it in perspective.
The telltale on my merc kicker (no thermostat, just straight, constant waterflow) felt felt pretty darn hot, and I was concerned, but the meat thermometer told me it was within a normal operating temp, around 125F or so, nowhere near boiling. I've since also bought a cheap infrared thermometer and it shows the engine block to be just about the same temp as my tell tale, which is what I was hoping for since this particular engine has the telltale toward the end of the cooling circuit.
My Evinrude kicker has the telltale much earlier in the cooling circuit and it barely gets warm to the touch.
By the way to OP: that's another way you can reassure yourself: buy a $25 infrared thermometer and check the temps at various places on your engine block. Even though it will feel good and warm, if not downright hot (5 seconds or less on the touch test), you might find it's only 130-140F, which I believe is pretty normal for any watercooled engine.
