hot engine, 2.5 fishing motor offshore conversion

[1981super]

I have a 2001 merc 200 carb fishin motor that i installed onto a ridgeback offshore mid with one piece exhaust plate. Heres the problem, no water pressure and motor gets hot very quickly and hardly any water out of the pisser. This is what i did. Installed gasket between bottom of exhaust plate and mid, high performance gasket between top of plate and lower cowl pan, high performance gasket on top of the pan. popit cover installed with hose coming out and capped (for now) t stats removed with washers, top hose where poppit went is blocked. I tried taking off the lower unit and connecting the hose directly to water pipe, did the same thing. Any suggestions, or ideas would be excellent, thanks in advance. The engine ran perfectly and cool before doing this.

[89Talon18]

Please post some pics of your cooling setup we like pictures. Not to sure about blocking the poppit off. There should be a plate with a 90° fitting which is one of your water dumps if my memory serves me right and you should have another water dump from the starboard head. There shouldn't be a poppit in there either and start with 1/8" fender washers.

[1978allison]

John Marles at US1 Mercury Outboard Race Engines and top pin pistons has some good information on a race cooling system. I use it and it works well with my Promax.I am running a 15 inch offshore mid.