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1989 Evinrude 200xp E200STLCEB No Cooling water to heads

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willallen1

New member
Hello, not a mechanic by any means. I purchased this boat about a year ago. It runs strong, but has had cooling problems since I got it. I have rebuilt the entire water pump, housing and all. There are no thermostats in the engine right now. I’m getting no water to the heads/ out of the tell-tale and it overheats.

Couple random things I have noticed,
I’ve put just the lower unit into a tin of water and spun the pump with a drill, and got a powerful stream of water out of the pump. Both water pump kits I have used don’t seem like they get a very tight seal around the pickup tube, unless you get the tube deep into the pump where the rubber grommet is, but it is hard to tell how far your getting the tube in when putting the lower unit back on.

I have hooked a water hose directly to the pickup tube with the lower unit off. As soon as I turn the water on, it dumps most of the water back out the lower exhaust housing on the rear side of the pickup tube. After a few minutes I get a small drop of water every few seconds out of the tell-tale.

I have back flushed water from the tell tale as well and got a good stream out of the pickup tube, hopefully meaning nothing is clogged.

The only things I can think of is that 1. I have a bad head gasket or powerhead base gasket that is causing pressure build up In the heads and isn’t allowing cool water to reach the heads. Or 2. The upper grommet on the water pickup tube is bad and is the reason why the motor is dumping all water out the bottom of the midsection exhaust housing and not filling the powerhead

My hope is something simple that one of you guys may know something that I don’t. My last resort is to pull the powerhead to check gaskets and upper water tube (which I hope I don’t have to)

Thank you!
 
willallen1 said:
I have rebuilt the entire water pump, housing and all. There are no thermostats in the engine right now. I’m getting no water to the heads/ out of the tell-tale and it overheats.

I’ve put just the lower unit into a tin of water and spun the pump with a drill, and got a powerful stream of water out of the pump. Both

I have hooked a water hose directly to the pickup tube with the lower unit off. As soon as I turn the water on, it dumps most of the water back out the lower exhaust housing on the rear side of the pickup tube. After a few minutes I get a small drop of water every few seconds out of the tell-tale.

I have back flushed water from the tell tale as well and got a good stream out of the pickup tube, hopefully meaning nothing is clogged.
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Full disclosure, I've never touched this particular engine. The thing that gets me is you say putting the hose directly on the water tube that has a strong flow then becomes a trickle. It had me thinking deflector tubes, but I don't believe this engine has those.

Take a look at the Cylinder and Crankcase parts diagram. Part's 40 (aspirator) and 115 (water intake valve) are in the food chain of the water flow. I don't know how it all works together or how either part works, but I wonder if you might have a restriction in of these components causing your issue.

I would suggest you put the T-stats back in so when you do get water flow the engine runs at the correct temperature.

KJ

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I believe all lines and valves are clear. I ran it today without the thermostat covers even on, no water came out but I did notice (not a lot of pressure) but a noticeable puff on the hand when feeling by the open thermostat holes. I’m thinking I might have a bad head gasket or some odd gasket down the line and it is over pressurizing the cooling system and not allowing water to come up??
 
willallen1 said:
I believe all lines and valves are clear. I ran it today without the thermostat covers even on, no water came out but I did notice (not a lot of pressure) but a noticeable puff on the hand when feeling by the open thermostat holes.
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When you installed the water pump are you sure that you clocked the impeller vanes in the right direction? Looking down at the pump housing the vanes should be sweeping clockwise. Also, is your pump base plate oriented properly? I think the base plate bolt pattern is spaced so that it can't go on the wrong way, but it's worth checking. Finally, was the stainless steel housing cup properly secured in the alignment hole? If that all checks out then it's likely down to an issue in the water tube or you have blockages in your cooling passages.

I have seen people try to run really old impellers (or super cheap ones) and while running they disintegrated sending little bits of rubber through the engine.
 
kevinj said:
When you installed the water pump are you sure that you clocked the impeller vanes in the right direction? Looking down at the pump housing the vanes should be sweeping clockwise. Also, is your pump base plate oriented properly? I think the base plate bolt pattern is spaced so that it can't go on the wrong way, but it's worth checking. Finally, was the stainless steel housing cup properly secured in the alignment hole? If that all checks out then it's likely down to an issue in the water tube or you have blockages in your cooling passages.

I have seen people try to run really old impellers (or super cheap ones) and while running they disintegrated sending little bits of rubber through the engine.
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I believe everything with the water pump is good. I threw the lower unit into a tub of water and spun the pump with a drill and it shot out a good amount of water. I checked head gaskets and they didn’t look too bad so I don’t think head gaskets were an issue. I think I’m going to pull the powerhead and check base gasket and upper water tube grommet.
 
You have done very reasonable diagnosis, your doing a great job. With this type of a compression leak, disrupting water flow....you might try a compression test. Would love to have "Racer" help out here too. Would sure be nice to have Joe Reeves back on-line too. He has been very helpful to me over the years since his "retirement" from the forum. Joe and Racer could fix about anything. These guys are true treasures to all of us. Tim
 
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timguy said:
You have done very reasonable diagnosis, your doing a great job. With this type of a compression leak, disrupting water flow....you might try a compression test. Would love to have "Racer" help out here too. Would sure be nice to have Joe Reeves back on-line too. He has been very helpful to me over the years since his "retirement" from the forum. Joe and Racer could fix about anything. These guys are true treasures to all of us. Tim
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Tim, compression is good, head gaskets are good. Tore the powerhead off and checked upper water tube in the mid section. Looked good. Everything seems to be okay. Only thing I can think at this point is the powerhead base gasket. Just wondering how the exhaust would build enough pressure with the Tstat covers completely off to stop water flow to heads. A little lost still after tearing everything apart.
 
willallen1 said:
Tim, compression is good, head gaskets are good. Tore the powerhead off and checked upper water tube in the mid section. Looked good. Everything seems to be okay. Only thing I can think at this point is the powerhead base gasket. Just wondering how the exhaust would build enough pressure with the Tstat covers completely off to stop water flow to heads. A little lost still after tearing everything apart.
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Also, I’ve installed the water pump impeller clockwise 4 separate times, and each time I take it back apart, the vanes are magically flipped counter clockwise, confused there as well.
 
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