Did I bork my Honda BF50?

[Jeff Drumm]

Pulling away from a dock at low tide in a tight spot, I think I sucked some gunk (mud maybe) into the cooling system. Shortly after I got clear, I noticed that my Honda wasn't peein'. After farting around a bit trying to figure out what was plugged, I managed to get back to the dock and tie up, but not before the overheat alarm beeped for a second or two.

I pulled the black, well, ureter (what else would you call it?) tube from the nipple in the bottom of the engine housing and aimed it off to the side, then asked my son to start the motor. Wonder of wonders, a strong steady stream of water came from the tube.

I probed the nipple with a wire and reattached the tube, then restarted the engine. The peehole gave a solid, strong stream, like the proverbial racehorse . . . possibly stronger than I've ever seen it. The engine sounds fine, too.

Should I be concerned?

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

You may have picked up some crud blocking the intake holes which caused the momentary overheat. Shutting down the motor may have caused it to clear as the water comes down out of the powerhead back down through the pump and then the intake holes. I wouldn't be concerned unless it overheats again.

[Hubert]

You probably got the indicator tube plugged, this does not mean that the pump wasn't working. I have this problem quite often and carry a length of weedeater line and clean the tube by pushing it into the pee hole

[Mark Prouty]

You probably got the indicator tube plugged, this does not mean that the pump wasn't working. I have this problem quite often and carry a length of weedeater line and clean the tube by pushing it into the pee hole

I carry along a thin piece of wire instead of the weedeater for a Mercury 2 stroke. This motor runs in alot of sand. Often, just stopping and restarting the motor 4 or 5 times completle clears the pee hole.

The overheating alarm has gone off numerous times with no adverse problems. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

[Jeff Drumm]

Thanks, guys. I feel better now . . .

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Having earned an education in outboard cooling systems recently, I have to say that Mark and Hubert's advice is not completely accurate. If your telltale gets blocked, it shouldn't affect the cooling of the motor as long as it is only the telltale that is blocked. Water still goes through the motor and there is no reason that your overheat alarm would go off. The overheat measures the temperature of the water jacket near the top of the cylinder head.

If the water intake holes on the lower unit get temporarily blocked, then there is no water going through the motor or the telltale. This is a bad situation and if your overheat horn goes off, you should immediately shut down the motor to see what is going on. Think about a plastic bag (trash) getting sucked up against your input holes. You shut off the motor, the bag falls off, and everything is fine again. This exact scenario has happened to me before with an outboard powerboat I owned several years ago.

In your case, the mud or other debris may have only partially blocked your input holes and then also blocked your telltale. Clearing the telltale is not what fixed the problem. The problem got fixed when the rest of the debris fell out of your whole system, primarily the input holes.

With my recent overheat saga, there was still water going through the motor and telltale, but not enough of it because of the constriction of a grommet. I could still run the motor at low speeds (and get back to my dock) because I still had partial water flow through the motor, this is different than a total blockage which shuts down the entire flow. Granted, your engine may be somewhat different than mine, but I think most of them have a similar design from what I can tell...Also, it does not take very long for these babies to overheat when they don't have enough cooling water...just a few seconds really.