2005 Mercury Saltwater 140 HP 2 stroke

I just bought a boat with a 2005 Mercury Saltwater 140 HP 2 stroke. Its only done 45 hours ! It didn't come with the outboard manual but I have one on order. In the mean time, aside from the obvious (flushing), can anyone provide me with some tips and hints in caring for and understanding this motor i.e. the local mechanic told me the water pump is thermostat controlled so the tell tail will only start pumping water after a few minutes. When it wasn't pumping after 1 minute I freaked and turned the engine off ! Thanks.

Yeah, V-6's do that. You can only tell with a water pressure gauge.

If you're testing at home use a screw in adapter for your garden hose, that suction cup thing never worked for mine. And the manual really caused me some heartache on the use of the choke. It says push key in for 6 sec. BEFORE cranking. Nobody could figure out what was wrong. Lots of cranking, gas treatments, tune-ups, dead batteries later, I find out it actually is push key in WHILE cranking. Starts right up! Oh and this forum is kinda intimi****** for newbies but it's the best resource after your service manual. Question formulation is key. good luck

No water will come out of the tell tale until the motor has reached operating temp and the thermostat's open then it might come out as a big stream or just spit out. Its a dumb design as the thermostat's have to open for the tell tale to operate, but there is always the warning horn to alert you if it gets hot