Water Coming from Thermostat Housing when motor is cold. Overheat at WOT

[XstreamVking]

Have you dug into the poppet?

[Steve200]

Not yet, going to wait until I get a new poppet kit and the other hardware (hose and right angle brass adaptor) so I can put it back right once I pull it apart.

At the moment I am just try to work out how water can be coming out the stats when they are stone cold. They either don't seat or they are opening under pressure.

[XstreamVking]

My "98" 2.5 EFI has a working poppet and t-stats. When started cold it will let out a dribble of water right away and after less than 1 min. starts getting stronger.

[Steve200]

Yeah that's the way its suppose to work. I grew up around these motors and the tell tale always starts with a dribble and then gets going as the stats open up.

Mine starts peeing about 3 feet as soon as the water comes out after starting (10 seconds).

I think it's the pressure of the water in the system .. the poppet can over ride the thermostat. I can easily open the stat between my thumb and first finger .. the spring is fairly soft.

[XstreamVking]

It's hard to collapse the spring on my stock stats. Yours are maybe modified?

[Steve200]

Nope just bought em from a shop, should be standard, perhaps the quality is low. Maybe I should try another pair. I'm not super strong and I can easily compress the spring between my fingers.

[racervboat]

You must have bad stats theres no way it will pump that much pressure to open the stats.If you can easily open them up with just slight pressure there no good.Try taking them out and run restrictor washers and see what happens?

[tlwjkw]

Should be a hose going from a 90 deg fitting on the poppet to a 90 deg fitting on the top of the block. Just rebuild the poppet and re-rig it like stock and you should be good....

just a note: that year doesn't use tha hose from top of block to poppet... that didn't start till late '89 with water cooled reg. so its not necessary with that block and right poppet..........

[Steve200]

just a note: that year doesn't use tha hose from top of block to poppet... that didn't start till late '89 with water cooled reg. so its not necessary with that block and right poppet..........

Ahh, thanks for the info .. I do have a hole in the top of the block on mine, but it looks like its been closed off for a long long time (always ?) So the outlet from the poppet should go to where ?

Anyway things have improved. I am no longer overheating at sustained WOT. I had been flushing the motor with vinegar on and off for several days so that may have cleared something. I put silicon where the rubber seats against the t-stat housing and that seems to have helped ... now I don't get a 3 foot pee stream when I start it. That may also be helping my cooling too by restricting the flow.

Need to do more testing though as it was very bumpy today, on account of many boats out on the lake (Australia Day weekend) all the bumps rattled the earth wire off my temp gauge within about 20 minutes .. but no overheat within that time period.

[tlwjkw]

Ahh, thanks for the info .. I do have a hole in the top of the block on mine, but it looks like its been closed off for a long long time (always ?) So the outlet from the poppet should go to where ?

leave it plugged up............ tha big pipe plug you see on top is what you will need to remove and reduce down for a bib for a water pressure gauge connection..........

junk tha stats and housings, clean tha surface on tha heads really well (fine flat file works wonders here).. replace both housings and t-stats and quit jackin' with tha old wore out stuff...........jmo

[Steve200]

Well I don't really idle around with this thing, its just a fun machine to go for a quick run (flat out) on a good afternoon so the poppet could stay jammed open ... if my overheat troubles are over, then I will leave it as is, but will get some new stats and stat housing for sure.

[W2F a V-King]

Well I don't really idle around with this thing, its just a fun machine to go for a quick run (flat out) on a good afternoon so the poppet could stay jammed open ... if my overheat troubles are over, then I will leave it as is, but will get some new stats and stat housing for sure.

And a pressure gauge !!!!

James H.

[Steve200]

Yep and a pressure gauge ... still trying to decide where to mount it.