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Live in MD, mild winters, thus do not winterize my boat motors. Typical go out every two weeks, start it up (if I have not been fishing or hunting with my boats) on the ear muffs ... run it for 5 minutes and shut down till next time.
Well this Feb, about 3 minutes into the run....heat buzzer goes off ... shut down. Can't see anything wrong, very cold out ...look later. This continues for the next three or four times ... exactly after 2 minutes 45 seconds the buzzer goes off. Well this is an engine that sat in my garage for 10 years .... last year, first out of storage, had clogged thermostats and carbs ....cleaned them out myself ... day later same thing. Took it to a shop and after $$, they did the same thing ...found a couple of clogged fuel lines and the thermostats were clogged again , they cleaned them out... motor ran great.(side note, I replaced the water pump first thing out of storage, have less than 10 hours on motor and pump)

Since I've been learning the ropes on my new (to me) 22' Whaler .... the 17' with the Johnson has just sat ... but crabbing coming up, thus what a better way to spend Father's Day .... get the 17' running.

Go directly to the thermostats ...1994 Johnson 112 Hp, cross flow version, thus the thermostat housing is buried, just a wonderful thing to work on. Get it apart, some junk but not like the first time. Check the thermostats (look like the same old ones I cleaned before ... but the shop charged me for new ones ?) ... the thermostats opened when heated.
Started the motor with the thermostat housing still off ...ran fine, water coming out of the Port head was warmer than the other side ....but after 5 minutes not as big a difference .....heat buzzer never went off.

Figured I'd be using the boat mostly for crabbing or bombing down the rivers (warm weather), thus put back together without the thermoststs or the spring loaded pressure relieve valve ....figured if there was still junk in the engine from sitting, having a completely open passage would let it flow out... much easier assembly. Motor ran fine ... ran for over 12 minutes on the ear muffs, ran it up to 2500 rpm .... seemed to run fine, no buzzer.

So, is it a bad idea to run without thermostats? Figured if the engine ran rough, I can always put them back in ....getting pretty good at getting that housing back on.

Does any one have experience with something like this ... think it is something else other than the thermostats? Recommendations or different course of action?

Thanks, Tom