Hippofox
New member
New to the forum, so hello to everyone here.
I have a 1976 Chrysler 75HP that I think has quite a few hours on it during it's life, but I've only got about 10 hours since I bought the boat late last fall (we got out late this year for non-boating reasons). This past week we made three trips to the lake (Beaver in NWA) and had about 4 hours of fun with no issues I could detect. Motor is pushing a 16' VIP and was doing about 35mph at top end with two people, then about 32mph with the boat fully loaded (7 people and stuff). I don't keep it at full throttle for very long though.
After about 2.5 hours of continual use (cruising and pulling a tube) the motor wasn't hot at all - I could hold my hand on the head shortly after stopping. Next day I went to flush the motor and clean up the boat. After about 30 seconds the motor started running rough so I went to 'up the pressure' on the whiskers to increase water flow thinking it wasn't getting enough water when the overheat buzzer went off (at 180F on this motor I think). So I raced back to the boat and shut it down after about 20 seconds of buzzing). There was oil on the head below the top two spark plugs that I didn't see before this happened - can't see any damage to the head.
Is this normal for a cooling system to suddenly fail after being fine the previous day? The guy I bought the boat from had the impeller replaced the year before he sold it to me and said it didn't have many hours (<25) on it. Also should I worry the motor is in any other trouble other than needing a new water pump kit installed? Or is something else likely?
I already know I have to replace the propeller shaft seal as I noticed it leaking as well, so I'm concerned about ever increasing costs. At this point I'm hoping I can do all the needed work to save on the repair, but I don't want to start totally rebuilding a 2-stroke motor as I've only worked on land loving 4 strokes!
Any help and guidance is greatly appreciated.
I have a 1976 Chrysler 75HP that I think has quite a few hours on it during it's life, but I've only got about 10 hours since I bought the boat late last fall (we got out late this year for non-boating reasons). This past week we made three trips to the lake (Beaver in NWA) and had about 4 hours of fun with no issues I could detect. Motor is pushing a 16' VIP and was doing about 35mph at top end with two people, then about 32mph with the boat fully loaded (7 people and stuff). I don't keep it at full throttle for very long though.
After about 2.5 hours of continual use (cruising and pulling a tube) the motor wasn't hot at all - I could hold my hand on the head shortly after stopping. Next day I went to flush the motor and clean up the boat. After about 30 seconds the motor started running rough so I went to 'up the pressure' on the whiskers to increase water flow thinking it wasn't getting enough water when the overheat buzzer went off (at 180F on this motor I think). So I raced back to the boat and shut it down after about 20 seconds of buzzing). There was oil on the head below the top two spark plugs that I didn't see before this happened - can't see any damage to the head.
Is this normal for a cooling system to suddenly fail after being fine the previous day? The guy I bought the boat from had the impeller replaced the year before he sold it to me and said it didn't have many hours (<25) on it. Also should I worry the motor is in any other trouble other than needing a new water pump kit installed? Or is something else likely?
I already know I have to replace the propeller shaft seal as I noticed it leaking as well, so I'm concerned about ever increasing costs. At this point I'm hoping I can do all the needed work to save on the repair, but I don't want to start totally rebuilding a 2-stroke motor as I've only worked on land loving 4 strokes!
Any help and guidance is greatly appreciated.