Woops, I meant raw water cooled - no heat exchanger. I think I am sticking
with the cooler 143 degree thermostat. We boat on Lake Travis in Austin, TX
and although very clean, its "hard" water. I have the scale on my outdrive
to prove it. Seems the cooler running temps will limit mineral precipation
as it does for sea salt.

Thanks for all of the replies.

"Geoff 93 RRC" wrote in message
m...
The boat is fresh water cooled. What hotter range plug would you
recommend
and how much hotter is it than the standard plug?

Thanks,
Geoff

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in
message
...
On Mon, 23 Feb 2004 20:10:04 GMT, "Geoff 93 RRC"
wrote:

It seems most new boats have a 160 thermostat these days. I have a '93
Mercruiser 4.3LX. Can I use the 160 thermostat? I boat exclusively in
fresh water. I want to get the cleaner combustion that the higher
temps
give.

Ok, I've a different opinion.

I prefer to run a little cooler thermostat with a hotter plug. I've
done this on my antigue trucks and this technique works great.

If you are looking for power and clean combustion, a hotter plug is
always the best choice over fooling around with the thermostat. You
have to remember that the reason you have a thermostat is to maintain
a constant temperature on the block for expansion/contraction reasons
- not for combustion. Combustion is strictly the pervue of how hot
the spark is.

Curiosity question - raw water cooled or fresh.

Later,

Tom
S. Woodstock, CT
----------

Basic Fishing Program:

10 - Fish
20 - Eat
30 - Sleep
40 - Goto 10