www.iFourWinns.com

Well, with the weather there wasn't much boating going on in the Upper Chesapeake Bay. I did manage to get out Saturday evening and Sunday. Saturday, I made a trip to marina gas dock and almost immediately got a engine sensor warning when I got up on plan, the engine choked down and I idled into the gas dock and back to my slip. Last year when the engine warning signal started beeping I had an issue with my thermostat. This time I was able to troubleshoot the issue to an overheating starboard manifold and riser. Hot to the touch and I put a heat gun on it, the temp was around 200 degrees. The port side riser and manifold was okay. Once the manifold and riser cooled down I started to try and figure out if I had a clog somewhere in the line. I ran water through the flush out line. That didn't seem to help. I took the hose off of the starboard side thermostat housing and put a garden hose on it and water seem to run through it and the risers and manifold were cool to the touch. So the problem was in the thermostat housing. A friend of mine stopped by and I had him plug the hose to the starboard manifold and I started the engine to see if water was pumping. The weird thing was that the port side manifold and riser were cool so where was the block? Once we started the engine we saw a white substance come out of the starboard side thermostat housing. We tried it again an some more came out and water started flowing. I took out the thermostat and check everything was clear. I seems that, what we think was a spiders web nest, was clogging the starboard side tube, right after the thermostat. Which just seemed odd. Anyway, put everything back and started the engine, it came up to temperature and port side and starboard side manifolds and risers were about three degrees within each other 87 degrees and 90 degrees. Crazy. The boat ran fine Saturday and Sunday, right at 174 degrees. I have a 2004 Four Winns 268 5.7 Gi-EF engine.

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2004 268 Vista "Satisfy My Sol"

Great info, thanks for sharing

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Current:
2000 Sea Ray 380 Sundancer "still Livin the Dream"

Past
2002 268 Vista 5.7 GXI "Livin' the Dream"
1996 Rinker 192 Captiva. "The Simple Life"
1999 Yamaha XLL 1200 Waverunner.
1976 Mercury Marquis tri hull 120 hp

Is this boat used in salty or brackish water?
If so the white stuff could be salt deposits. You might want to r+R the stat housing check it for corrision and replace if necessary. I find that they get bad about every 8-10 years. Also if in salt when where your risers and manifolds last checked? 5-7 years in salt.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

I am in brackish water. I don't think it was salt water deposits, the consistency seem different.

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2004 268 Vista "Satisfy My Sol"