Just came home worn out from a beautiful, but fishless day at Bushy. We hit the water at around 7:30am. Weather was fantastic, enough breeze to keep the no-see-ums in the grass, but we didn’t put any eaters or even undersized anything in the boat, other than one palm-sized flounder from the cast net, which went back.
I guess I could eat the foot long mullet I caught for bait, or I could eat the 2 pounds of fresh haddock I got from Sellsfish 
.
Despite the beautiful weather, was kinda a bummer day. Yesterday I tinkered with my outboard to adjust the carb and de-carb with some Seafoam, noticed it started peeing scalding hot steam and water rather than the normal “warm” water. I had a fresh impeller available so I swapped them out last night, and cleaned out the tell-tale tube and orifice fitting with compressed air. Air flowed everywhere it’s supposed to, from the outside view. No dice. Now it won’t pee at all and I have smokey exhaust (smoke=seafoam in the gas) coming out the tell-tale. Somehow I think I’m just shooting the water out of the pump and getting exhaust in it. Hopefully I haven’t fried the new impeller.
So we just scooted around the various creeks at Bushy with the trolling motor. Dumped the bucket of water in the boat that was intended for finger mullet. Left my battery-op air bubbler on the dock, which of course was gone when I returned. Forgot to fill up my big water canteen at the house, which meant I had just enough for my son, and then left our lunch in the truck at the launch (try that with a hungry 4 year old boy!).
Needless to say, we left at noon. Brief stop at Sellsfish to regain my dignity and bring home some seafood.
Plan… pull the foot off the outboard and rebuild that water pump again, but now that I have daylight, blow out the thing with the water hose and look for obstructions in the system.
If I get the outboard peeing again, we’ll hit Folly somewhere tomorrow. If not, trolling motor at the Goose Creek Reservoir or Bushy Freshwater for some blueg
That does not sound good.
Semper Fi
18’ Sterling
115 Yamaha
Big Ugly Homemade Blue Push Pole
You might have some salt build up in the head of you motor? I have used a strong vinegar solution in a big tub and ran it through the motor several time while stoping the motor and blowing all the ports you can with an air compressor every 15 minutes or so. Have an 06’ Susuki 140HP that has gotten gunked up with salt in the head of the motor. I do the vinegar thing once every 6 months or so. Works better than salt away in my book and is a whole lot cheaper. You can go to the family dollar store and clean em out of 1gal. white vinegar for bout $2 per.
Guns kill people just like spoons made Rosie O’donell fat.
J-Dizzle, I may give this a shot. Sadly I used to have (if I recall correctly) a source for some much higher strength acetic acid, but that was a long time ago and can’t remember now.
Since this is a small motor I’d probably only need 4-5 gallons of it if I can fit the lower unit over in a 5g bucket.
By the way, it may be salt buildup, but it’s not 100% salt buildup. The motor was running fine the other day and the problem started near the end of the trip, so if there is salt buildup, it was “completed” by some crud I sucked in or something. I did notice the screen over the intake is busted. I can rob the screen off of my spare-parts motor fortunately.
Moral judgment under girds the entire structure of laws and is necessary for the rational structure of any significant statute. The idea that our laws can stand independent of moral foundation is senseless.----- Albert Mohler.
I got a plast 55 gallon drum and cut it in half. Might could find a big tupperware tub big enough. Is your water pipe from the impellar housing up to your head secure?
Guns kill people just like spoons made Rosie O’donell fat.
quote:
Originally posted by J-Dizzle
I got a plast 55 gallon drum and cut it in half. Might could find a big tupperware tub big enough. Is your water pipe from the impellar housing up to your head secure?
I have a metal 55g drum that holds the motor just fine, so I could use that if needed, but would take a lot of vinegar 
lol.
I may have found the problem. There is a rigid plastic cover over the gearcase that the water pump is seated into, and that cover was damaged. Looked as if the bolts holding it down were overtorqued and over time the crack became a hole, as the hole looked “aged” and not freshy fractured.
If that is the problem, it explains how I was getting exhaust up through the pee hole. If it’s not the problem, then I’ll definitely be vinegar’in up my motor once I get it rebuilt.
Thankfully I have a parts-motor with a good gearcase cover, because otherwise that’s an $80 hunk of plastic.
Moral judgment under girds the entire structure of laws and is necessary for the rational structure of any significant statute. The idea that our laws can stand independent of moral foundation is senseless.----- Albert Mohler.