Junk in the poppet valve... again!

[DieselDood]

Ok.. so this is the 4th time I've gotten junk in the poppet valve, causing it to stick closed. (2.5l Mercury)

This gives me excessive water pressure and excessive coolant speed through the system causing the motor to run warm (Last run I didn't notice till the gauge was reading 175 and climbing. The sensor is in the left/bank 2 cylinder head. The alarm has never gone off, and yes the alarm works, not 100 on the sensor though).


I'm not sure how guys get away with it, or why I'm having so many problems. Yes I beach from time to time, but I'm right next to other guys that are beached. I push off and back out like they do.

None of the guys I know are having any issue. Now... that kind of raises another question too... how many just don't know because they don't have Water Pressure and Water Temp gauges?


But.. I digress... What can I do to stop this from happening? About every 4th time out I need to pull it apart, clean it out, and put it back together.

I'm starting to be concerned that I need to pull other stuff down to check for debris. Where would I even look though? Is there something in the adapter plate?

[rock]

There are some fairly small holes in the adapter that can and will plug with small debris. The fact that you are getting trash in the poppet kind of rules out the adapter because the poppet is before the adapter in the the water flow. Are you using a low water pickup?

Rock

[DieselDood]

No low water pickup.

What is the coolant circulation schematic?

[DieselDood]

I'm gathering it comes through the lower unit, pump, up the tube into the adapter plate, then up through the block and heads to the thermostats, where it goes back to the center of the motor and gets dumped back out the exhaust?

[David - WI]

[rjdubiel]

maybe pull the lower and check out the pump and water pump base and clean it out. Then clean out the poppet and see what happens. I am guessing you didn't suck up more, you got more to move to the poppet from the first time you got it all in there? Just a guess as you must have a hoover vacuum down there sucking up sand!

[DieselDood]

maybe pull the lower and check out the pump and water pump base and clean it out. Then clean out the poppet and see what happens. I am guessing you didn't suck up more, you got more to move to the poppet from the first time you got it all in there? Just a guess as you must have a hoover vacuum down there sucking up sand!

That's not a bad idea, and not hard to do.

I'm going to pull the poppet tonight and clean it out again, I'll drop the lower and check that too.

I've been told my one of the guys that helped build the Champion 184's that I should run 3.5" Prop to Pad on this boat. When I do that my water pressure drops at WOT. I had read that guys take 1/8" NTP plugs and block the top 3 water pump intake holes on each side.

What are your thoughts? Good idea? Bad idea?

[rjdubiel]

just plug 2 on each side and see what happens. If you plug 3 on each side open up the bottom two on each side some. You may be able to drop the motor a tiny bit too and pick that water back up.

[rock]

Might want to look into scoops. They work well.

Rock

[WaterZebra]

Your debris could still be working its way thru the adapter plate, block and cylinder heads. Funny how its always ending up in the poppet valve at the end of the circuit.
1 - Try removing the thermos and see if stuff is backing up there (heads) You might want to try a garden hose adapter at one of the thermo locations and try to knock that stuff down (gravity) from the heads and block.
2 - Take the thermos and poppet valve out and flush run the engine. More garden hose pressure the better, don't worry about what the water pump is doing. You need to get all of the crap out of the block and heads. This might take multiple flushings to do this.

Did you back the thing up in sandy beach water? An excellent way to get the water pump to inhale debris.

[DieselDood]

About 15 of us beached in shallow water for a bass tourney Weigh in.

To my knowledge no one else had any issues afterwards, just me.

But... it seems every time I beach the boat, this happens.
The last 2 times I know I could have powered off, but I got wet and pushed it out deeper.

I suspect that if I didn't beach it, I wouldn't have had any issues. But.. beaching for tourneys is common, so I'm not sure what I'm doing that is different to have this issue.

[WaterZebra]

About 15 of us beached in shallow water for a bass tourney Weigh in.

To my knowledge no one else had any issues afterwards, just me.

But... it seems every time I beach the boat, this happens.
The last 2 times I know I could have powered off, but I got wet and pushed it out deeper.

I suspect that if I didn't beach it, I wouldn't have had any issues. But.. beaching for tourneys is common, so I'm not sure what I'm doing that is different to have this issue.

Are you using those bass boat jacking sticks? Is the motor down when you lower the jacks? If so, you may be sticking your gearcase into the sediment like a potted plant.

[DieselDood]

I dont have shallow water anchors. I wish I did. Lol

I generally will get a little speed going and trim up. I kill the motor as soon as I see water pressure drop, and trim all the way up. By the time I'm beached, it's all the way up.

[tlwjkw]

you can do it one time and still get junk moving around for days, weeks without strippin' it down and cleaning EVERYTHING THATS GOT A HOLE IN IT.....

[powerabout]

Excessive water speed causes it to run warm?
Can you explain that?