start with the water pump, look closely at the water pump housing, if you see any of the plastic melted, replace the housing as well. First tip on replacing the water pump, put the drive in forward before dropping the lower unit, second tip, there's a bolt under the trim tab

I've done it in a boat ramp parking lot before.... takes about 15 minutes if you're experienced and 1 hour for a novice... not hard at all

That's what I wanted to hear, LOL.

Thanks, I'll give it a try. Should I even look at the t-stat..

OK so I finally got some time. I took the lower unit or out drive off the boat and replaced the water pump or impeller. What I did was to start the boat with the thermostat housing removed. I could see no real water movement so I was confident the impeller was the problem. Just as you people said it not that bad. Here is a pic of the old impeller, not sue if I needed to replace or not.

I think it was a couple of years past due, LOL

........... and to answer my own question, no there was no thermostat. My next question is should I put a tstat in? I still have it apart as I have to replace the gasket and can't get the parts until Monday or Tuesday as Monday is... CANADA day... :happy:

Yes put a thermostat back in. That water pump was toast

Conceder it done, you were the guiding force for the water pump. It was so bad it makes me wonder how the previous owner winterized it?

That impeller got run dry is what did it in. You can tell by the wear on it as age tends to just lay the vanes over whereas running it dry burns them off. And put a 140 t-stat back in it since it is a raw water cooled engine. You could do a 160, but the 140 seems to work better and reduce temp spikes from my experience.

what he said!

take a long look at how the thermostat is installed in your housing, its easy to put it in wrong, just find the right parts break down and it should show all the parts in their correct order