I just took a 70-80's monel off my dad's hands. When I first put it on my boay, which was before I aquired the motor, it ran great for ten minutes, quit, and began to smoke everywhere under the cowling.

We took out the thermostat and replaced the impeller. Now water leaks as if the tube is not correctly connected from the upper to lower unit which it did not do before the incident.

The entire time (before and after repair) there was a spewing spraw of water comming from the outlet, so there is flow).

I suspect it is the tube, but the problem is that my dad started taking the block apart to see if it was clogged.

Sould I drop the lower unit and check the tube, or put it back together and start over?

Another thing I should mention is that there is an absence of a kill-switch and wires have yet to be found.

Oh yeah, it's a 15 horse. A Johnson.

Ok, here's what I did: I put the sucker back together since ot had been in pieces, dropped the lower unit again and made sure the tube was connected properly. Got it all back together, hooked up the flushers and fuel tank and gave her a run. Started a few times but then died. I noticed the fuel line connections were not that great and there was gas or water in the engine housing. The one time I got it to run for more than three seconds there was water flow so I know the tube is connected and flowing through the block. I also noticed the gasket that goes on the drive shaft at the lower unit was in bad shape.

Any advice?

Update:

I got the POS running. Still need to do sea trials and there is still water flowing from where it shouldn't. However, I connected a small piece of vacuum hose to the outlet on the water side of the block and I have plenty of flow.

Going by feel, the motor did not get that hot and I ran it in gear for about ten minutes, which is how long I ran it before when it died. I wonder how it will do on the lake and ubder load...

Did I mention it will not idle? Every time I bring it down to idle it dies, so changing gears is out of the question at the moment. Would adjusting the mixture help? I have already set the idle speed at maximum.

Dirty carbs can cause bad idle........remove carb and clean and blow out ........buy a carb rebuild kit and replace needles, floats, gaskets.

Give us a model number so we'll know what kind of ignition it has.

Assuming you took care of the problems you found (fuel lines, etc.).

You have to set the timing first and then the mixture.

You might have to get a manual to find out the timing specs, but 0� TDC is a good starting point for idle timing.

To set the idle mixture, turn the screw clockwise until it stops, then turn it counterclockwise until it stops, counting the number of turns. Starting with it at the midpoint, with the engine idling turn it clockwise until the engine starts to sputter. Then turn it counterclockwise until you find the smoothest idle.