717 Engine Cooling Drain Plugged?

[treimche]

I have discovered that the port where water exits the engine and drains to the back of the boat seems to be completely clogged. This is the port side engine in my 1996 Speedster. I have removed the hose from the fitting and tried blowing compressed air into the port, but it is totally blocked. I have a hose disconnected from the rear of the cylinder head for winterization, and on the other engine, same hoses disconnected, air/water will flow freely though. Pics refer to the cooling port I'm talking about. Do I need to remove the pipe and exhaust manifold to see what is clogging it up? Or is there another way to try and clear the passage?

 

[mikidymac]

You could try digging into it with stiff wire like a coat hanger. Removing the brass fitting might help also if you can get in there. IF not then removing the manifold is the only way.

 

[chipskittles]

My boat had fully clogged bleed ports and a starboard side cylinder drain clog. Surprisingly it ran cool and I only found it by accident one night working on the cooling through-hull fitting. I could see all the sand in the hose. It was easy enough to flush with air/flexing the hose but even with all that I still had to take a pick to the exhaust drain before it would clear on that side. I now make it a habit to stick my finger in there to verify flow during flushing.

It's a common issue, mostly comes from beaching it seems.

 

[treimche]

Just wanted to update this since I was working on the boat today. I fixed the clog. It turned out I got lucky and there was a chunk of something in the brass elbow fitting that comes off the bottom of the exhaust manifold. I removed the fitting and dug the crud out with a pick. There was also sand stuck in there.