Northwest Fishing Reports

I was leaving the Kenmore launch and strayed from the channel when the boys got a but rambunctious and removed my attention from our navigation...

I killed the main and turned the trolling motor on until we made it back into 10 ft water. I fired up the main and we took off without any issues. I was only running for few minutes on slow plane and noticed a lot of steam swirling around the motor and a toasty warm smell.


I have a feeling the intake is blocked or I killed the water pump.

Is there an easy way to flush the cooling system on my outboard or do I have to take the thing apart? (1971 Merc 115, inline 6, 2 stroke)

Look on the back close to where the tattletail outlet is. There MIGHT be a plug for back flushing the cooling system. Attach a hose and backflush it for a few minutes with the motor OFF/NOT RUNNING.

Call http://www.limitoutmarine.com/ as they would know if that feature is on your motor, not all have it, expecialy the older motors.


Limit Out Marine

I have the same motor, I was in a tournament at Clear Lake and the algea bloom was bad, the same thing happened to my motor, it would get on plane and sputter/smoke like it was overheating, I took it home and ran water through the lower unit with the rabbit ears without running the boat for 5-10 mins and cleared 90% of the algea out.

I put the muffs on it, turned on the water for a few min, started the motor and slowly increased water pressure.

A ton of silty brown started coming out. Ran it for 15 minutes and all seemed good. Well... kinda. Taking it back down to the lake today for a test.

Some other issues were found so we think were going to pull the motor in two weeks while we replace the gaskets/seals in the cooling system, replace impeller, carbs rebuilt.... and see where that leads us.