Flushing my 496?

[Suthrn]

Hello. I have a 2007 270 Amberjack 496 with Bravo III. When I picked the boat up I was told to make sure I close the seacock when flushing the outdrive. Well, 650 miles later I go to flush and cannot find this particular seacock. I call the dealer, again 650 miles away, and he says I should be starring right at it. I can't find this thing. He then says throw on the muffs and flush the lower unit and then look for water coming out of one of the pick ups under the boat and thats the seacock to close. Well, I do this and I have no water coming out of any pick ups. I call him back and he tells me that I must not have a pick up under the boat for the sterndrive and all is fine. I have a closed loop system but he says not to worry and to just hook up the muffs and flush. Now, I am concerned he and I are missing something. Could it really be I don't need to close anything and just flush it like this? I have read 3 different things in the mercruiser manuals but want to make sure I don't tear anything up. Help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Fun Times]

One thing you will want to look for to be safe is find the red hose on the starboard side going between the transom area (Behind engine) up to the water pump impeller housing, Now look to see if you have another hose that might have a (T) fitting into the red hose someplace heading down to either the bottom of the hull under the engine or in some cases up against the back side of the lower transom area.

If you find no extra hose hooked to the red hose anyplace then you should be able to just lower down the sterndrive first, then hook up and align the ear muffs holes to the center of the holes on the drive, Then hook up the water hose, Then turn the water all the way up slowly so the air in the water hose does not move the muffs off center of the holes on the sterndrive.

When you get the engine started you should see the water get sucked up from the ear muffs and within 30 seconds you should have good water flow coming out of the two lower holes of the out side transom assembly.:thumbsup:

Also the recommended idle speed while running on the garden hose is 1300 RPM's out of gear.:wink:


(IMO) If you do not hook up the garden hose the way I talked about above then you could damage the impeller while running the engine out at home, Because just as an (FYI) I have seen in the past, That If you hook up the ear muffs to the sterndrive first, then lower the sterndrive down you will create an air pocket between the sterndrive and the impeller housing, Giving you a good chance at burning up the rubber water pump impeller, By not sucking in any water.
So lower the drive down first before hooking up the flusher kit, And you should be good to go.
I hope this helps, Good luck with it and have fun in your new boat this year.:thumbsup:

 

[Suthrn]

Boat Tech, thanks for the advice. I went out and looked and the red hose comes off the pump and right back to the transom. There is nothing tapped into it or anything. So I assume I am good to go. It was just a little unsettling when the service person from the dealership had me looking for something that wasn't there and then told me not to worry about it. Anyone else with input? Thanks again.

 

[tbirdvet]

I agree with Boat Tech. & only V drives have the sea cocks. BIII do not. You should be OK.

 

[shinsr]

I ran those same engines for 7 years before I just traded her in. I had a flush unit installed on top of the engine on the raw water side after the waterpump - had a quick connect / disconnect on it and just pluged the hose right in and flushed the boat weekly that way (as I kept the boat in the water) - actually did it without running the engine sometimes so it was just flushing fresh (as it was in the salt water). At seasons end after the haul I did the muffs on the outdrives like you described above and never had a problem - got 7 years out of the manifolds and the risers were still good at sale.

 

[JV II]

I've got 2 of them and no seacocks for the engines. The water comes through the drive.