Water inlet screen for Mercury outboard

"Does anyone know of a water i

"Does anyone know of a water inlet screen for a 1993 Mercury 60hp? A little history, I recently purchased a used boat that was used for fishing in rivers that had very weak pressure coming out of the tell-tale. After replacing the water pump and cleaning out the tell-tale tube I improved it quite a bit but it was still not very strong. I then removed the thermostat and popet valve and found small river gravel behind the popet and the thermostat. Took them out and ran the engine for a short while to allow the gravel/sand to flush out. The tell tale was still weak so I took the tell-tale tube fitting out of the head and replaced the cover for the thermostat with the thermostat and popet removed and ran the engine again. Many small gravel rocks came out of the head. I thought I had it fixed with a good strong tell-tale stream but then and after using the boat this weekend I once again had to flush the small gravel out. I think that it's working its way out of the system. But after searching on the internet for a screen to cover the water inlets on the lower unit I couldn't find one. Does anyone know of someone who makes something to add to the engine to prevent the small gravel and sand particles from getting into the cooling system (a bolt on inlet screen or filter)?"

"Hi
You did do a great job s

"Hi
You did do a great job so far. I would pull the tstat a flush the motor fom the top down, to get the sand out of the motor. Some do have screens but without the serial number, I can't tell you for sure what motor you do have. I have one owner that uses a brass screen he made for his motor to reduce the hyfoil he was getting into his motor
I put a water pressure gauge on the motor for so he could see when it was stopping up so he could clean the screen before he had an over heat.
I would think that sand would be much smaller is size and don't see how it would help other and keeping out some of the small gravel

Just my two cents worth
hamit"

"jr ingalsbe,

Thanks for yo

"jr ingalsbe,

Thanks for your input. The serial number of the engine is OD195989. I may have to make my own filter screen if one isn't available commercially. I added a water pressure gauge to the boat when I put on a jack-plate. I have used a hose with a nozzle to try to flush the engine out by blasting the water through the thermostat and popet holes. I thought I had it cleaned out pretty good until I noticed some more debris in the system the next time out with the boat. I may have to just "purge it" each time out for a few trips in a row to see if any more particles appear behind the thermostat and popet valves. I just put a new thermostat kit that included a new popet valve, gasket, etc. The engine looks like it has a steadier water pressure when running on a flush muff."

"depending on climate, what ab

"depending on climate, what about removing the thermo and poppet. The added flow might help"