Haven't been around boats since I was a kid (20 yrs ago) but recently picked up an old bass boat with a 40 HP Merc (1979). With the motor idling in a barrel of water, there is some water spitting out with the exhaust. Is this normal?

Thanks for answering what is probably a dumb question.

Yep, perfectly normal. You will want it "peeing" out of the indicator stream (whatever that is called) as well.

Yes thats normal. If you are talking about the exhaust holes below the powerhead, but above the water line, they are exhaust relief ports.

Thanks guys! That's a relief! There's also a steady dribble out of the pee hole so hopefully this thing is good to go.

Dribble is no good. You want a good stream. Since you just picked it up and might not know the history, change the impeller for piece of mind.

Out of the pea hole there should be a steady stream coming out. It can be removed and cleaned out with small wire to remove any obsructions. If that didnt do it it maybe bad impeller in lower unit. The pea hole is part of the cooling system for the engine. the cooling system retreaves water from bottom of lower unit and is pumped to through engine then discharged out the peahole.

I would look into that.

Not to hijak this thread, will the old motors also have a constant stream coming out of them particularly a 1965 Evinrude Big Twin cause all mine does is spray water out or spits the water out if you will?

I'm not familiar with elderly ones but in my opinion it should be a steady stream especialy a big twin. I would definatly look into it. A spray almost indicates an obstructed emiter (pea hole)try cleaning it with a small wire for starters

I have a 25 hp motor on my pontoon, and had the water just spuntering out the pee hole. I just poked a long prong into the hole, and it released some junk and started a good steady stream. you definetly want a good steady stream out that hole.

Mud wasps and spiders will build nests in the "tell-tale" pee- hole, this just recently happened to me. A little wire will clean it right out.

Older Evinrudes and Johnnys don't have telltales so sputtering out the exhaust relief is what you want.

Gold tip, there is no pee hole on your motor. The spray you see must be coming from the exhaust.

I wonderdered about the amount coming out of the pee hole also. I recently bought this rig and supposedly the pump had recently been done. I dropped the lower unit to check it out and it looked pretty fresh so I put it back together. The impeller was flexible and looked fine.

Since there was some water coming out of the pee hose I figured it wasn't plugged but I didn't check into it any further. The hole is pretty small (less than 1/8" diameter) where it exits the motor. The water coming out at an idle is not a steam that shoots out but is more of a steady dribble, almost a stream, that runs down the side of the motor and then drops off.

Is it possible to check the cooling system pressure on these motors and if so what should it be? It looks like there's a pipe plug on the cylinder head that maybe I could put a gauge in.

Update Time

I disconnected the hose going to the telltale and blew it out from the motor side. There was a little bit of junk that came out so I figured maybe it was restricted. We took it to the lake but it still didn't have steady "stream", more like a steady dribble. There was also a pretty good amount of water coming out with the exhaust. I watched it closely and we putted around (no wake lake) for close to 2 hours. The motor stayed cool the whole time but the dribble never did become a stream. Could there be more junk in the system that's limiting the flow out of the telltale or could there be something else wrong?

One thing I wondered about was whether the water tube coming off the pump could leak where it goes into the powerhead. It didn't seem real tight but it didn't fall out either when I was putting the lower end back on (motor tilted). Does this motor have a thermostat or anything else up top that could be an issue or is this likely an issue that is related to the water pump only?

Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it. We have a family vacation planned for Big Battle starting a week from today so I really need to be getting this figured out.

I would urge you to pull the lower unit and take a look at the impeller. While your in there you might as well replace the impellor. Over the years they dry out crack and break and don't pump like they should. They are fairly cheap. You should have a constant stream with some pressure behind it and a little water out the exhaust up top.

My 1957 Evinrude 18hp doesn't has a pee hole, all the water goes out the exhaust up top.