Mercury 115 2008 4stroke / cooling

[RiverBoy]

guys i could really use some input on this, i have a brand new merc 115 2008 4 stroke, used it all year great no problems. I live in michigan and duck hunt and ice fish so i leave my boat in the hoist while its cold, yes below freezing for days. Here is my questions: i went down to my boat after not using it for a month and it stared perfect just like always but it took about 5 minutes before it would pee. this does not seem normal to me do these new motors not pee until they are up to temperature, which would not make sense to me? Please help, thanks

[timebandit]

It should not matter, but this is so new that even I am not sure.

Could have been something blocking the hole, or, maybe some frozen water in the line?? I believe they should have a stream of water within a couple of seconds after start up.

[RiverBoy]

over the past 15 years i have always done the same procedure when i know my motor is going to sit in freezing temps, after the last use i tilt it up and down a few times to get the water out and then leave it stored in the verticle position, all of my other outboards have been yamaha's so i wasnt sure if this one was different. It is very possible there could have been ice buildup lets say that was the problem is there anything else i could have done in this situation besides run it until it peed? THanks

[jethro1]

Not all motors are created the same.

Some Merc's (my old Merc 175EFI for example) are hot pissers. Water does not leave the tell-tale until it has passed through the thermostats. In cold weather (say 40 degrees F) it could take over a minute for the water in the block to warm up enough that a thermostat would open and allow water out the tell-tale. Even in warm weather it would take a while to pee. Also, in that motor the poppet valve opening allowed much more water to flow through the block. It would run rather warm at idle but much cooler when under power.

On my Yam F200, water leaves the tell-tale as soon as the block fills up. Since the water exiting the tell-tale has not gone through the block it is a cold pisser and it will start to flow very soon after the motor has been started. On this particular model Yam, water passes through a fuel cooler and the recitifer/regulator first before it gets to the tell-tale. The fuel cooler and R/R are connected to each other and the block with some rubber tubing. I have heard of there being times when water is entrapped in the tubing and freezes if temperartures are low enough. In this case, there will be no water flow out of the tell-tale until the ice in the tubing has thawed. On the Yam, the poppet valve only bypasses water to prevent excessive pressure from buiding up. Once the thermostats are working the engine runs the same temp most all of the time, unlike the Merc.

Best thing to do is to get a genuine Merc service manual and review the cooling section. It probably has a block diagram of water flow through the motor. A quicker test may be to feel the temp of the water out of the tell-tale. If it is hot, then your Merc four stroke may be like my old Merc two stroke in which case waiting a long while for the motor to pee is not unusual.

[Back-in-Black]

Riverboy,

How do you like that motor so far? I've been thinking about putting one on my flats boat, however, the motor currently on there just won't die. Coming up on 12 yrs old.

[TurboDan]

On both of my Johnson outboards, the pee stream will not begin until the engine heats up in very low temperatures (meaning under 40F).

[RiverBoy]

i love the motor very responsive and powerful, quiet and start immediately. I only have 20 hours on the motor but i looked for 1 year before i bought it, i looked at the etec, yamaha and merc. and the merc was the right choise for me. let me know if i can help with any other information.