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I have one of these engines also, and in reading through this discussion everything pointed to the poppet valve. Glad you got it repaired.
The other thing to look out for is a defective temperature sender on the engine, which can give you wrong readings on the gauge. I have had this happen on two different engines.
Typically with Merc V-6's, they need to be warm to idle properly, hence the poppet valve which restricts water flow below 1800 RPM. As the boat planes off and the valve opens up for full water flow, the temp will drop considerably.
