I used to do it that was but kept getting water everywhere. I have an
inboard and everything is just harder to get to than an I/O.
I won't put a permanent T in the line as I only need to use it twice a year:
Spring and Fall.


I've thought about installing this setup on my boat (130hp Volvo I/O),
but I was concerned that, when using the garden hose for water, the
water would not be sucked up by the engine mounted raw water pump and
instead just go out the hose that normally carries water from the
outdrive's water intakes to the water pump. Am I wrong about this?

Now what I do is attach the garden hose to a 4' length of clear hose
that has female garden hose fitting on one end and nothing on the
other. I then remove the hose from the intake side of the water pump
and replace it with the naked end of the clear hose that is attached to
the garden hose. Before I attach it though, I turn the water on at the
main garden hose valve and make a mental note of how far I need to turn
the handle in order to get a fairly low pressure stream of water coming
out the end of the hose I'll be attaching to the water pump. It sounds
complicated, but it's actually very simple!