Bunged up telltale on Tohatsu 3.5 outboard

[mikejames]

As I replaced the gear lever on my Tohatsu 3.5 today, I thought I would try to unblock the telltale pipe, because it only ever drips.
I pulled the pipe off and poked a wire into the engine block as normal. I picked up the rubber hose that connects to the spigot on the engine to put it back on, and as I did so I saw something shiny inside the hose.

It turned out to be paint that the engine block is painted in- all of the paint on the spigot must have squeezed off as the hose was pushed on , and it appeared as a lump in the pipe, where it has been responsible for reducing the flow to such a miserable dribble even when new that any muck would block off the flow.

Much better now.

(Changing gear lever : easy.. undo two bolts on small panel on front of engine, undo screw, remove old lever , transfer O-rings to grooves in new lever and grease and replace)

 

[Refueler]

Wish tell-tale was so easy to do on my little Mariner 2. Pesky exhaust cowl that sits over it - the holding screw has corroded into the leg. Afraid to apply impact driver to it - in case of breaking leg casting.
May have to drill it out and retap ......

 

[VicS]

When a tell tale only dribbles or doesn't pee at all the first thing to do is check that it is not blocked!

Remember though it is only a telltale that shows that the pump is pumping. Most of the cooling water usually exits with the exhaust under water where you cannot see it, A bunged up telltale as such causes no problems.

It is also important to remember that you can have a situation in which there is a good pee stream but inadequate cooling and overheating due to bunged up water ways in the engine.

Nigel
I think what you are referring to is the exhaust relief outlet(s). You get some water carried out with the exhaust but again the main water exit is as described above. Your engine may not have a telltale in the same sense as the Tohatsu. It is usually obvious as a small hose coming away from some point on the engine if there is.

Surprised though that you get those outlets bunged up

Not knowing exactly what model (year etc) you have I cannot call up the owners manual and parts diagrams to check.

 

[Refueler]

Vics .... there is NO other water outlet on this older model - ALL water exits the exhaust outlet. Only recently did it stop from being a real healthy PEE to now zero.

My Johnson 4.5 twin .... that used to have a healthy PEE as well from the little hole at back of engine block - now nothing. Gave it to my engine guy who also has a boat at my place. He took it away, came back few days later. Strapped it to back of his Krim mobo and went off up-river. I went after him with my boat and even though the Krim is designed for 25 - 40HP Soviet stuff - this little 4.5 gave him a steady 8.5kts on full throttle. I noted that no PEE out of hole still. He reckoned he'd checked and engine was fine.
I still don't like NOT seeing that stream of water.

Back to my Mariner 2 ..... that definitely overheats and needs sorting.

 

[William_H]

Well just to put another slant on this question. I have had Johnson 6 for 25 years. I have never had any problems with the water tell tale blocking. It was always a blockage in the system mostly between the pump and the engine that both stopped the tell tale flow and overheated the engine.

Anyone who blames the tell tale tube I reckon is being optimistic obviously this is not always correct as the OP says but still is most likely correct. olewill

 

[Refueler]

Outboard Engineer pal of mine has a small compressor with various fittings for end. He often finds that blowing back through the tell-tale / water outlet clears the blockage. I've seen him apply some high pressures to some engines ....
He also uses an industrial version of Furmox to run through systems to clear crud.

I have a good idea what has caused my little Mariner problem : My flushing drum is an ex Red Diesel dye 40 gallon drum. I think some dye residue may have lifted fromn drum sides and got into the waterways. I spent ages cleaning the drum - but still think it may be that. Trouble is - if correct then I'm going to have trouble dissolving it out. Diesel will not do it now that it's "cooked" ...