Literally saved my vacation trip with the boat with this video. Sucked up some sand on a sandbar today and was fearing our boat time was done. So glad I found this video and simple fix. Thanks for sharing man
This video was the PERFECT information for “repairing” my motor!! Saved me hundreds of dollars and time. The boat goes back in the water tomorrow. So glad to know about the upper plug. Moored on salt water, this plug will now be used to flush after our outings! Thank you!
Thank you very much!!! This confirmed my problem. New to boating by myself. Have an Optimax 200. Freaked out when I heard that beep on the lake last weekend. Sure enough after running about 5 minutes, that steady beep started, my water temp and engine light came on. Oh crap. Idled back in and loaded the boat until further notice. After seeing your video, I went out and stuck some grass trimming line thru the pee hole. Reconnected the muffs, started the engine and the engine started to pee!!!! Thanks Again, RB
Jeffrey, just came your video here and my goodness is it a wallet saver! I had the same problem with my Merc not "peeing" as well. However, I wasn't in the position to use my boat for a while, so it sat unused for about a year and half. My first thought was the thermostat in the water pump froze up, but when I found out how long it would take and how much it was gonna cost for the service guys to fix, I started searching the net. Let's just say I'm back on the water thanks to your video! Thank you good sir!
Man thank you for doing this video it helped me a lot. The boat shop wanted to charge me $250 to do unclog my telltale. I am so glad I found your video. It helped me. Thanks again.
Thanks for this! Gave me an idea look closely at our 2017 Mercury 40 hp which nearly stopped peeing. The garden hose connector IS this pee hole on this model. I did all the annual maintenance on ours this weekend and then connected the hose, ran it, flushed it, and took it to the lake for a test. Almost no water coming out. Brought it home and looked at the inside where the line runs from the pump output to the pee hole. The hose was twisted and kinked from my tightening the garden hose and twisting the fitting when unscrewing the hose. So, put the garden hose back on, watching the tube from the water pump output to the pee hole twist until the kinks came out, then held it with pliers until the hose came out.
As an emergency reaction only. If you find your telltale not pissing when you’re out on the lake with no tools. a good method to flush out the coolant system is to take a water bottle, hold the mouth firmly against the P hole and squeeze The water into the P hole with as much force as possible. This will back flush your system and blow all the material out the inlet scoops on the lower unit. You may have to do two or three bottles of water (just refill from the lake or ocean) and eventually you will see water flow back out the P hole . Make sure that you’re doing this with the motor off so that you’re not fighting back pressure. I have had my lower unit buried in the mud multiple times with no flow at all from the tale tale and have easily flushed the system out. Once you get back to land make sure you do a thorough cleaning and inspect the impeller.
But to add what I've learned is that P stream does not mean you engine is getting cooling water. The Thermostats could be plugged and the P stream still flows.
Really Nice job Jeffrey. I had a 11 250 Optimax and loved the shit if it. My brother owns her now and loves her like I did. All best luck when you are fishing. I fish a shit load too.
Great video. I just experienced overheating yesterday while low speed cruising. It started beeping and lost power. Will go ahead and rinse the system. Thanks!
Jeffrey, you son of a bitch, you saved my life. My father left me his bass boat when he passed away a few years back. Like you, I don’t know whole lot about outboard motors-if anything. The boat has been sitting for about a year and a half and I brought it out on the water today. I didn’t realize that my engine wasn’t peeing. But the high-pitched tone started going off while I was on pad in the middle of the lake channel. On my way back to the marina, another boater said “hey man, you’re not peeing.“ So I loaded the boat up and contemplated taking it to my mechanic who was located 30 miles away from me outside of Nashville. I decided to go home and try to TH-cam anything that could help me out. Well, your video was the first one I came across. I didn’t even know there was a hose connection in the engine. I had a pair of the muffs and used them before. Anyways, I took the cap off, hooked up the hose, cranked up the water and it still wasn’t peeing. Then I grabbed a small nylon brush, and lo and behold- clumps of algae started coming out of the plugged up pee hole. It had been sitting for so long that algae simply grew inside the water exhaust and gunned it up. Sorry for the novel, but you saved me hundreds of dollars by posting this video. I wish I could buy you a beer. Cheers!
After this, I would've pulled the lower unit off and performed a thorough inspection of the water pump, impeller and water tube that carries water up from the impeller into the power head. That tube can easily get clogged with debris, and you may still get a OK looking tell-tale stream and think everything's fine...but you'll still run into overheating issues after prolonged running on the motor because your water flow is still under spec and eventually the motor will get to overheat. Particularly at lower speeds or sitting around idling for a while. This is exactly what happened to me recently. I was running into overheating issues, but the motor would run fine for the first hour or two after I launched the boat, but then it would throw the alarm once it was warmed up and I would be drifting around at low speed, trolling or idling. My impeller got damaged without me realizing it. It was badly mangled actually, two of the fins were completely gone, with a 3rd about to rip off at any moment. Because there were pieces missing, I looked up the water tube thinking they may have got lodged in there and sure enough, they did. So I was running on a bad impeller and with a restriction in the water tube...a bad combination. Frankly, I'm surprised the motor ran as well as it did. I got it fixed and the issue was resolved and my tell-tale port was pissing like a race horse even at idle, you could really feel strong pressure if you put your hand up to it. It was still peeing before this, even with a broken impeller and restricted water tube, just not nearly as strong. I'm sure you've got the problem sorted by now, but hopefully you did further inspection after this. You should get in the habit of checking the water pump and water tube for damage or obstruction AT LEAST once a year. If you've got the funds, you may even want to replace the impeller and gaskets on a yearly basis...but this isn't required or anything. Just inspect it and if it's still in good shape, keep using it. The key is just inspecting it whenever you find it feasible. You definitely want to check it at the start of the season, since you'll likely be changing your lower unit oil then as well. Might as well do both things at once. Funny thing was I checked my impeller before the season started and it appeared to be fine. Couple months later and it was toast. Lesson learned. Edit: Your tell-tale port in this video w/ the motor running seemed a little weak, but then again...every outboard is a little different from what I hear. Some will really piss out water while others are a little weaker. Just want to stress though that just because you're getting water from the tell-tale doesn't automatically mean you're in the clear. Always be safe and perform a thorough inspection of the intakes, water pump and water tube leading up to the motor.
I have the exact same motor and similar overheating on occasion...i'll have to check this solution out, although I usually do have a water-stream from the output nozzle, though it sometimes takes a minute for it to start streaming. Thanks for the video!
Should my Optimax 150 pee immediately, or does it wait until the engine is warm? I have fished a several years, but have never taken a boat out myself. My dad died about a year and a half ago and I now possess his Nitro 7. It has not been on the water in almost two years, and the batteries need to be replace. The cranking battery has totally died and I have tried charging it and reconditioning it. I also decided to replace the trolling motor batteries with Li Time (lithium) batteries, and am going to install a lithium charger, too. But, I already knew that the tell tale wasn't peeing from cranking it up a few months ago. I had tried muffs, but it never peed. I bought a large (soft) rainwater collection "can" and filled it up. That way the propeller can turn with no need for the muffs. Using both methods. it still never peed. I only found out today that I could screw in my hose to the left of the tell-tale. That did cause water to stream from the tell tale. But my main question still remains: Should the tell tale pass water immediately, or should it rely on the engine warming up enough to open up the thermostat?
The engine flush inlet is to flush out the salt water after every ocean run. There are some trailers that have the same type of system to flush the salt water out of the wheel bearings.
My mechanic told me to never do something with that hole and leave it to mechanics bc that is to flush only the upper part of engine and could cause damage if done wrong
Need to clean the compressor strainer. Especially if you see signs of sand or debris. If there is that much outside the strainer, you're taking a risk of overheating the compressor.
The Compressor strainer is actually in the bottom cowl on the port side. It is not that difficult in the end. I would recommend you look it up first and prep material before you start. You dont need much but I wanted the correct pipe compound and zip tie. Top fitting, Port side lower cowl, Aft of end of the motor.
Sweet. Im looking at new boat and i requested it priced with merc pro xs optimax 150. Max hp for this boat is 150. So i should get top performance out of this package.
Your water impeller should be replaced yearly and since you had sand, consider doing it sooner. Also clean out the water strainer and back flush the system. That said, if you're not getting the overheat warning (continuous beep) you can postpone it a bit longer.
Literally saved my vacation trip with the boat with this video. Sucked up some sand on a sandbar today and was fearing our boat time was done. So glad I found this video and simple fix. Thanks for sharing man
This video was the PERFECT information for “repairing” my motor!! Saved me hundreds of dollars and time. The boat goes back in the water tomorrow. So glad to know about the upper plug. Moored on salt water, this plug will now be used to flush after our outings! Thank you!
Thank you very much!!! This confirmed my problem. New to boating by myself. Have an Optimax 200.
Freaked out when I heard that beep on the lake last weekend.
Sure enough after running about 5 minutes, that steady beep started, my water temp and engine light came on. Oh crap. Idled back in and loaded the boat until further notice.
After seeing your video, I went out and stuck some grass trimming line thru the pee hole. Reconnected the muffs, started the engine and the engine started to pee!!!!
Thanks Again,
RB
This REALLY helped me. I learned a few very important things from you.
Worked for me too. I'm a bike mechanic and I used the end of a derailleur cable. Thanks Liz
Jeffrey, just came your video here and my goodness is it a wallet saver! I had the same problem with my Merc not "peeing" as well. However, I wasn't in the position to use my boat for a while, so it sat unused for about a year and half. My first thought was the thermostat in the water pump froze up, but when I found out how long it would take and how much it was gonna cost for the service guys to fix, I started searching the net. Let's just say I'm back on the water thanks to your video! Thank you good sir!
Man thank you for doing this video it helped me a lot. The boat shop wanted to charge me $250 to do unclog my telltale. I am so glad I found your video. It helped me. Thanks again.
Thanks for this! Gave me an idea look closely at our 2017 Mercury 40 hp which nearly stopped peeing. The garden hose connector IS this pee hole on this model. I did all the annual maintenance on ours this weekend and then connected the hose, ran it, flushed it, and took it to the lake for a test. Almost no water coming out. Brought it home and looked at the inside where the line runs from the pump output to the pee hole. The hose was twisted and kinked from my tightening the garden hose and twisting the fitting when unscrewing the hose. So, put the garden hose back on, watching the tube from the water pump output to the pee hole twist until the kinks came out, then held it with pliers until the hose came out.
As an emergency reaction only. If you find your telltale not pissing when you’re out on the lake with no tools. a good method to flush out the coolant system is to take a water bottle, hold the mouth firmly against the P hole and squeeze The water into the P hole with as much force as possible. This will back flush your system and blow all the material out the inlet scoops on the lower unit. You may have to do two or three bottles of water (just refill from the lake or ocean) and eventually you will see water flow back out the P hole . Make sure that you’re doing this with the motor off so that you’re not fighting back pressure. I have had my lower unit buried in the mud multiple times with no flow at all from the tale tale and have easily flushed the system out. Once you get back to land make sure you do a thorough cleaning and inspect the impeller.
But to add what I've learned is that P stream does not mean you engine is getting cooling water. The Thermostats could be plugged and the P stream still flows.
Really Nice job Jeffrey. I had a 11 250 Optimax and loved the shit if it. My brother owns her now and loves her like I did. All best luck when you are fishing. I fish a shit load too.
That worked for me! Thanks. You probably saved me a $300 or worse-my motor may have overheated!
Great video. I just experienced overheating yesterday while low speed cruising. It started beeping and lost power. Will go ahead and rinse the system. Thanks!
Jeffrey, you son of a bitch, you saved my life. My father left me his bass boat when he passed away a few years back. Like you, I don’t know whole lot about outboard motors-if anything. The boat has been sitting for about a year and a half and I brought it out on the water today. I didn’t realize that my engine wasn’t peeing. But the high-pitched tone started going off while I was on pad in the middle of the lake channel. On my way back to the marina, another boater said “hey man, you’re not peeing.“ So I loaded the boat up and contemplated taking it to my mechanic who was located 30 miles away from me outside of Nashville. I decided to go home and try to TH-cam anything that could help me out. Well, your video was the first one I came across. I didn’t even know there was a hose connection in the engine. I had a pair of the muffs and used them before. Anyways, I took the cap off, hooked up the hose, cranked up the water and it still wasn’t peeing. Then I grabbed a small nylon brush, and lo and behold- clumps of algae started coming out of the plugged up pee hole. It had been sitting for so long that algae simply grew inside the water exhaust and gunned it up. Sorry for the novel, but you saved me hundreds of dollars by posting this video. I wish I could buy you a beer. Cheers!
thank you man, I had my pontoon on the water and everything that you described happened to me. Now I know my solution. really appreciate your video
So easy, didn't even know what that plug was for. Thanks!
After this, I would've pulled the lower unit off and performed a thorough inspection of the water pump, impeller and water tube that carries water up from the impeller into the power head. That tube can easily get clogged with debris, and you may still get a OK looking tell-tale stream and think everything's fine...but you'll still run into overheating issues after prolonged running on the motor because your water flow is still under spec and eventually the motor will get to overheat. Particularly at lower speeds or sitting around idling for a while.
This is exactly what happened to me recently. I was running into overheating issues, but the motor would run fine for the first hour or two after I launched the boat, but then it would throw the alarm once it was warmed up and I would be drifting around at low speed, trolling or idling. My impeller got damaged without me realizing it. It was badly mangled actually, two of the fins were completely gone, with a 3rd about to rip off at any moment. Because there were pieces missing, I looked up the water tube thinking they may have got lodged in there and sure enough, they did. So I was running on a bad impeller and with a restriction in the water tube...a bad combination. Frankly, I'm surprised the motor ran as well as it did. I got it fixed and the issue was resolved and my tell-tale port was pissing like a race horse even at idle, you could really feel strong pressure if you put your hand up to it. It was still peeing before this, even with a broken impeller and restricted water tube, just not nearly as strong.
I'm sure you've got the problem sorted by now, but hopefully you did further inspection after this. You should get in the habit of checking the water pump and water tube for damage or obstruction AT LEAST once a year. If you've got the funds, you may even want to replace the impeller and gaskets on a yearly basis...but this isn't required or anything. Just inspect it and if it's still in good shape, keep using it. The key is just inspecting it whenever you find it feasible. You definitely want to check it at the start of the season, since you'll likely be changing your lower unit oil then as well. Might as well do both things at once. Funny thing was I checked my impeller before the season started and it appeared to be fine. Couple months later and it was toast. Lesson learned.
Edit: Your tell-tale port in this video w/ the motor running seemed a little weak, but then again...every outboard is a little different from what I hear. Some will really piss out water while others are a little weaker. Just want to stress though that just because you're getting water from the tell-tale doesn't automatically mean you're in the clear. Always be safe and perform a thorough inspection of the intakes, water pump and water tube leading up to the motor.
Man you saved me a bunch of aggrivation and headache thanks
Man you saved the day awesome video , just bought my boat !!!
Glad to hear it! Keep that thing in tip-top shape!
I have the exact same motor and similar overheating on occasion...i'll have to check this solution out, although I usually do have a water-stream from the output nozzle, though it sometimes takes a minute for it to start streaming. Thanks for the video!
Woods2Waters if you have not changed your impeller since you owned it, it might be time for a change.
This video saved my trip. Thanks!!!
Weed eater string works well for cleaning the pee hole out.
Thanks for that tip.
Should my Optimax 150 pee immediately, or does it wait until the engine is warm? I have fished a several years, but have never taken a boat out myself. My dad died about a year and a half ago and I now possess his Nitro 7.
It has not been on the water in almost two years, and the batteries need to be replace. The cranking battery has totally died and I have tried charging it and reconditioning it. I also decided to replace the trolling motor batteries with Li Time (lithium) batteries, and am going to install a lithium charger, too.
But, I already knew that the tell tale wasn't peeing from cranking it up a few months ago. I had tried muffs, but it never peed. I bought a large (soft) rainwater collection "can" and filled it up. That way the propeller can turn with no need for the muffs. Using both methods. it still never peed.
I only found out today that I could screw in my hose to the left of the tell-tale. That did cause water to stream from the tell tale.
But my main question still remains: Should the tell tale pass water immediately, or should it rely on the engine warming up enough to open up the thermostat?
The engine flush inlet is to flush out the salt water after every ocean run. There are some trailers that have the same type of system to flush the salt water out of the wheel bearings.
My mechanic told me to never do something with that hole and leave it to mechanics bc that is to flush only the upper part of engine and could cause damage if done wrong
Thanks! You just saved my day on the boat.
thanks so much for posting was worded it about this all day
100 pound test nylon fishing line works great to clear the 'pee" hole of sand or debris.
Need to clean the compressor strainer. Especially if you see signs of sand or debris. If there is that much outside the strainer, you're taking a risk of overheating the compressor.
How do you clean the compressor strainer?
That’s my ??? How do you clean it out I have 75 OptiMax
The Compressor strainer is actually in the bottom cowl on the port side. It is not that difficult in the end. I would recommend you look it up first and prep material before you start. You dont need much but I wanted the correct pipe compound and zip tie. Top fitting, Port side lower cowl, Aft of end of the motor.
Thank you , thank you. It worked for me. Thanks again
Sweet. Im looking at new boat and i requested it priced with merc pro xs optimax 150. Max hp for this boat is 150. So i should get top performance out of this package.
I can’t get the cap off and I fix most of my stuff
Jeffery...did you have to get an adapter for you garden hose to connect to the port next to the pee hole?
No. No adapter is required.
Thanks for the Video
Worked for me. Had to flush the inside tube connected to telltail
I can’t get that fucking cap off and I fix my own stuff
Your water impeller should be replaced yearly and since you had sand, consider doing it sooner.
Also clean out the water strainer and back flush the system.
That said, if you're not getting the overheat warning (continuous beep) you can postpone it a bit longer.
Thats a good starting point. Nice vid. Other than that issue how has that motor been to you
Never left me stranded. No major issues at all. People call these Mercury ProXS's bulletproof.
Thank you for this video I just did the same thing
Can you run the motor with the hose connected up top by the telltale?
No no. Make sure you got the muffs on it if you start it up.
@@JeffreyDavisFishing thank you.
@@JeffreyDavisFishing i have a 96 mercury mariner magnum. Someone told me my Motor won't pee unless it's at a certain temp. Is this true?
@@x--LeethaL--x Thats true , has to open the thermostats to show that waterpump indicator works , the efi engines arent as advanced as the optimax .
I keep an old section of spinnerbait wire and wrap it around steering cable in back so its always there
Cutting corners will get you to cutting checks!!
I have to try that today,
William Molina I know it’s a little late but did you fix it?
Change the waterpump impeller .
thanks
Time to wet sand your can will look like new