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Good Morning Everyone.

Last weekend I picked up a 2007 250hp Etec to repower my 1984 Outrage 22. It is mounted to a shipping crate, so I was able to stand it up and rig it for trial before I mounted on my boat. Last night I was able to fire it up, using both the muffs on the intake, or the flush port. Neither way was I able to get water to come out of the telltale on the back of the engine. I did have water coming out of the hose for the water pressure gage, and I did tape off the low water intakes on the front of the lower unit ( I was told this had an upgraded later model "Magnum" lower unit).

Without water coming out of the telltale I never let it run more than 30 seconds or so. I have a video of the engine running before purchase, but the telltale is not visible. I am also told that the seller put a new impeller in before I purchased the engine. Is there anything i am missing in order to et water out of the telltale?

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Let me confirm:

You hooked up the hose to the intakes on the lower unit with negative results from the tell tale with the engine running.

You hooked up the hose to the flushing port with negative results from the tell tale with the engine running.

Was the hose turned on wide-open each time?

When running the engine off the water, only the muffs should be used.

The flushing port does not deliver sufficient water volume to cool the motor when running.

I would inspect the tell tale hose to see if it is blocked. Run a piece of trimmer line into the grommet and 6" of hose.

If it does not solve the issue, I would drop the lower unit and replace the impeller. Worse case, you know it is good for the future.

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Thank you Phil

Correct, negative results both times. Tonight I am going to try cleaning the telltale, i was getting water out of the exhaust as well, so SOME water was flowing through the engine.

Interesting that my service manual states that the engine may be run at idle only until operating temperature is reached using the flush port. There seems to be conflicting literature regarding this.

Regardless, that is why I only ran it for 30 seconds or so.

If needed this weekend I will drop the lower unit, I have had an instance (on a different engine) where an impeller was installed with the fins facing the wrong direction, the telltale was still functional, but weak and sporadic. I am curious if this maybe the case.

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If possible, remove the tell tale hose from the engine block and blow out of it to verify there is no obstruction.

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If it helps I winterize my 200 etec on the flush and the engine runs way above idle with no ill effects

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Well, I am an idiot. I didn't realize that the flush port IS the telltale. I thought it was the port above, which is part of the exhaust.

I made sure the fitting was clear, and hooked the muffs back up, I made sure they were properly sealed, and I had no issues getting water out of the telltale after about 10 seconds of running.