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No water flow from pee hole

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steve48

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"Hi,
I started my 2007 15HP o

"Hi,
I started my 2007 15HP outboard today and found no water flowing out of the pee hole. I did wonder whether it was frozen as the lake had surface ice. Is this possible or do I have a blockage. I tilted the engine and found no debris on the intake grills.
Is there any way of flushing the system through.
Many thanks for your advice.

Steve."
 
"Yup totally possible. Take a

"Yup totally possible. Take a piece of wire, run it into the tube, and try to unplug the hole. Fairly common problem, I've had it happen to two of my motors over the years. Had bugs in once of them, hardened grease in the other...

I've flushed a system before, but it takes some work. You've gotta remove the lower unit, then hookup a hose right to the water tube... I'd run a piece of wire through the hole, and then a shot of WD-40 through the pee hole with the WD-40 straw. WD-40 will also thaw any ice."
 
Thanks for that Gerry. If it i

Thanks for that Gerry. If it is still the same next weekend I will try it. Sorry to show my ignorance but am I right to assume the water feeds from the very base of the engine through the two plastic vents and up through the engine to the pee hole. Also do you put the wire through from the pee hole itself or is there a way of getting to the waterway from inside the casing?
Thanks for any advice.
Steve.
 
"No worries, I'm just as i

"No worries, I'm just as ignorant in many areas...
Which is what brought me here in the first place...

Yes, water comes up through the vents in the base, which is the water pump inlet. The water pump sits on the lower unit inside and pushes water up a tube inside of the mid section (exhaust housing), into the engine. From there it branches, a portion goes straight to the pee hole, and another to the thermostat where it goes into the engine block once it gets hot enough. Most of the water is exhausted with the exhaust. The pee hole is just an indication if the pump is working or not.

Here's a good link describing how your cooling system work. And, heh, it says in cold water, pee hole freezeup is common.
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/publications/VS/cooling.html

I'd just shoot some WD-40 straight into the pee hole then chase it with a piece of wire. If it's ice, WD-40 alone will probably do the trick.

If that doesn't fix it, you might have a water pump problem. If you can locate where the water line enters the intake manifold (where the thermostat is just downstream of the carb), you can disconnect it there, fire up the engine for about 10 seconds, and see if you get flow. If not, then you might have a bad impeller.

If you tilt you motor after use, it's possible that about 1 tablespoon of water can collect on the inlet side of the pump... and it's possible that that could freeze, binding up your impeller. But I would think that it'd probably be pretty tough to start if the shaft was bound up, unless if the impeller just sheared off. I don't really know if they can fail that way. But if you had hard starting before it lit off, that might explain it.

This happens because there is no drain hole right there, whereas everywhere else water drains out of the engine when you tilt it.

Water pumps aren't hard to replace. You've just got to remove the lower unit. Disconnecting the shift rod is the most difficult part... everything else just slides out. if you get to that point, I can help you with the step by step.

Personally, I'm putting my money on ice in the pee hole, in which case, you probably don't have a problem. Since it's a 2007 engine, I'd be surprised if it's anything else."
 
"Cheers Gerry,

Really appre

"Cheers Gerry,

Really appreciate your advice. I have a bit of knowledge with cars and bikes etc. and one engine works pretty much the same as another but wasn't to sure about this pee hole water flow thing.
Like you say I would be surprised if it was the pump etc. as the engine is not yet two years old.

I did remove the two plastic water intakes and give them a clean and was surprised to see snails inside? I take it that the spawn must get indside the plastic grills and they are hatched inside...?? This has made me wonder if they can get up into the water jacket of the engine and whether this could cause a blockage.
Anyway, I will see what happens at the weekend, hopefully the weather will be a bit milder.
Once again thanks for your advice.
Steve."
 
"Steve,
Gerry gave you lots o

"Steve,
Gerry gave you lots of very good advice. However, one other thing to check for is a mud dapper nest in the pee hole. Here in eastern Virginia they are a real problem and regularly build nests right inside the pee hole opening. Every outboard boat owner I know around here has that problem."
 
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