1999 150 XR4 water pump question

"I am new to the forum, so ple

"I am new to the forum, so please forgive if this is discussed a lot but I could not find anything on it in the recent history.

I recently purchased a boat with a 1999 Mercury XR-6 150. It had not been run for about 1 to 2 years. The first time out, it started and ran great for an hour. While idling I noticed that there was no water coming from the pee hole and a second later the alarm sounded and I immediately shut the motor off and got a tow. My logic tells me the water impeller dry rotted and failed, so I have a kit to repair the impeller and I plan on replacing the Thermostats as well. I have not torn it appart but am concerned that pieces of the impeller might now be lodged in engine and cause blockage. Will a back flush take care of that? Do I have have to be concerned about retorquing of head bolts or exhaust cover bolts? The engine ran for maybe 1 second after the alarm sounded.

Any advise would be appreciated."

"Man, you knew better than tak

"Man, you knew better than take that thing out for a run without putting a new impeller in there.

I hope you didn't trash the power head.

Jeff"

"Brad, a back flush should dis

"Brad, a back flush should dislodge most "cooties" that may have got into the jackets/channels and water tube.

When you pull the lower unit and get the waterpump cover off you should be able to quickly determine if you need to track down rubber bits in the system.

Only in extreme cases where something is lodged in the water tube or powerhead base inlet can it be a bit of a pain to get the bits cleared.

Unless you touch them, the head/exhaust bolts should be fine.

The thermostat cover can be torqued down to 10 ft pounds if you are fussy about it (or simply about "that" tight if you are using a normal wrench)

Since you are doing the impeller/thermostat why not spend the extra few bucks and pick up a poppet kit as well - then everything is done..."