Start the Engine Then Turn on The Water??
 

I had a local mechanic install a flush kit on my PCM Excalibur 330 and I picked it up today. When he was showing me where he installed the flush kit he told me that I need to start the engine then turn on the water. He said it would take two people because you would need to turn on the water right after you start the engine. I asked why, since this goes against everything I know about inboard motors. He said that if I turn on the water without the engine running I would risk blowing out hte oring on the impeller housing. Is this right??

I was told (I think by an MB rep) that it doesn't matter. I have a PCM engine also. So far no problems...

A 5gal bucket with about 5 or 6 feet of hose connected to the tranny cooler gives you the best of both worlds. Waterhose fills the bucket and the boat pulls from there like it would from the lake. If everything is working correctly it takes about a minute at idle to drain the bucket.

Before that I used the Perko Flush and it works fine, you can't trouble shoot cooling problems though because your forcing water into the motor with enough pressure to temporarily fix any problems on the suction side. I did that for 3 or 4 years and never had an issue with the raw water pump on the Ford motors, GM's use a different pump that may be less tolerant of that. If you have a Vdrive there is pro ally 2 or 3 gals of water in the hoses before the motor so I wouldn't worry with the dry start, but I would put a ball valve on the water hose so I wouldn't have to run at all to turn it on. There is probably 15 to 20 sec. of water in the hoses.

I turn the water on, crank the boat, disengage the transmission and idle it up to about 1500RPM's for a couple minutes. I then pull it back to idle and let it run for another 10min or so while wiping down all the gear I soaked with my foam gun prior to flushing. Just prior to shutting it down I disengage the tranny again and pop the throttle a couple times.

Since the river is brackish, I've been using Salt Away during the flush. I also mix a little into my foam gun when soaking down the boat and gear.

I have the same engine. Mine is closed cooled, with a flush kit. I, along with every single other person I know who fishes their boat, regardless of anything, always turns the water on first.

This is how I always did it with my I/O. I odered the Salt Away and will be using it on this boat.