Just put a new water pump on my friends '99 Johnson 225 HO. I have replaced Johnson water pumps several times and had something happen that I can't explain. Everything went together normal and seemed fine but then I fired the motor up and it idled at 15 psi. Now the hose I hooked it up to with earmuffs has pretty good pressure and my Merc gets about 4 or 5 extra pounds idling on this same hose. But that seems just a little high and the pee stream was as strong as if you were cruising on plane. This motor idled at 5 psi in the water but unknown how high on a hose with the old pump. The owner says it has never put out that kind of pressure at idle but that it always ran near 30 at WOT on the old pump, which was 3 or 4 years old.
In hindsight the only thing I think I may have done wrong is the torque on the 4 bolts that hold down the new housing. It said 60 to 85 inch pounds and I think I misread the torque wrench and went over that. Maybe by 35 inch pounds. But heck, I've never used a torque wrench before, just tightened by feel. As stated, everything went together fine. I called a friend with more experience and they said not to worry about it because it was a high flow pump and that was normal. I don't know because I haven't changed an OMC pump since OMC was in business. Can't actually water test the motor for another week+.
Can anyone either let me know if I screwed something up or ease my mind if this sounds normal?
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