In answer to the various points made:
It is a 2006 Mercury 2.5hp 2-stroke (the cheaper one with no neutral). The online manual doesn't have any technical diagrams, so until I collect it from the engineer's I won't be able to see how to bodge any tap-water hose into the cooling system.
I don't want to haul the outboard home each time in the car, fill up a wheelie-bin and dispose of salt-water into my septic-tank (no mains drainage). There is a perfectly good storage shed at my club, so I want to simply be able to flush it in-situ. In this regard, it would also be useful to flush it bolted to the outboard-bracket on the boat by connecting (my bodged adaptor) to a pontoon water-supply, etc.
Don't want to have to remove the prop either - as long as the motor is securely bolted to a bracket, a whirring prop is no more dangerous to me than taking care to walk on the pavement rather than down the centre of a motorway.
Jon
PS: Just an extra thought (it seeming sensible for the impeller to move fresh-water through the system rather than hose-pipe pressure as such): if a short length of hose could be connected to the water-intake, wouldn't it be feasible for to just 'siphon' enough fresh water from a bucket to flush the innards?
By way of an answer, I flush my Tohatsu 3.5hp by filling an empty wheelie-bin at home, clamping the motor to the rim, and letting it run until I'm bored with it!
I dont think you will find anyway of connecting a hose !
with the prop left on you will soon have no water in the bin!
Although unlikely it is possible to force water into the engine cylinder via the exhaust port by power flushing with a hose.
yup, but more water stays in the bucket if you take the prop off and taking the prop off also means you can give the engine more revs & hence a more powerful flush.
Is it possible to flush salt-water from a small 2-stroke outboard on dry land by just connecting a hose-pipe to the cooling intake/spigot? Would it damage the engine by there being no external water-resistance on the prop?
After a decade of flushing it in the club's tank (which is never changed and has become progressively polluted with ponging brackish water, contaminated with old fuel and oil dumped into it by lazy idiots), the cooling channels have become almost totally blocked and its costing me a small fortune to have this repaired.
There's no rule that says the motor needs to be run on anything faster than idle for the salt-water to be flushed out.
That's it! Thanks Plumb. I have a spare 10l food waste bin exactly like that, and it won't take more than an hour or so to run up a folding frame.
There's no rule that says the motor needs to be run on anything faster than idle for the salt-water to be flushed out.
Neat solution, unfortunately won't work for my 2.5hp 2-stroke, as description says for:
Mercury/Mariner
4/5 hp. (1 cyl.) 2-Stroke
F2.5/3.5 hp. FourStroke
F4/5/6 FourStroke Outboards (0R411837 and below)
8/9.9 hp. FourStroke outboards (model year 2005 & newer)