Your motor needs to draw cooling water from the drum. It is very bad
for the motor to run it without the lower end submerged in water.

WCD wrote in message ...
Not really related to boatbuilding, but I've often seen boat shops with
a 55 gallon drum filled with water to run outboard motors in. Why is
this done?

Is it maybe better for the motor to run with some load on the propeller?

Don't want to mess up my new motor!