mud dobbers clogging pee stream?

[Jesse-C]

I am looking at buying a little boat witha 50 horse merc from a guy at church. Boat has sat covered for a couple years in his garage. Took it out to the lake to test it the other day and went about 1/2 mile before the overheating alarm went off. Looked back and there was no pee stream. used the trolling motor to get back to the ramp. Took it to a friend and he changed the impeller but still no water coming out. Is there a chance its just a mud dobber nest? how would you flush that out? any chance its a more serious problem? thanks.

[EuropeanAM]

You can usually stick a piece or weedeater string (or similar semi-rigid material) up through the telltale fitting while running the engine on a set of muffs to help dislodge/wash out debris.

In some cases, it may be necessary to disconnect the line from the engine INSIDE the cowling, and blow out the fitting (backwards) with compressed air. ALWAYS disconnect the line from the block FIRST (so as not to FORCE the little critters up into the engine block).

[Nova Kaw 650]

It may be a case of two problems. The overheat alarm came on, so there was more going on than just a plugged telltale. If the impeller was indentified as defective and then changed, but still no telltale, the engine may be NOW running at a normal temp, but the telltale is plugged.


Modified by Nova Kaw 650 at 7:01 AM 1/8/2012