On Jun 30, 7:34*pm, "Mike Slater" wrote:
I am not trying to stir anything up by asking this question, but because the
water cooling passages are by design so narrow in the vicinity of the
thermostat on my 1995 Merc 60hp 2-stroke Bigfoot, and small debris was
constantly lodging itself on the waterpump/impeller side of the thermostat I
decided to just run without it. *I have been doing it for two seasons now.
I measured the water temperature at the powerhead with a laser unit at about
90 degrees. *I am getting ready to advise that my neighbor do the same thing
and I just wanted to hear some comments first. *What will it hurt?

Mike

Probably not, but one thing that you need to remember mike, is that
the engine does have a recomended operating temperature. and the
thermostat helps hold the water int he engine jacket so that the
proper temp can be achieved. And by running without the thermostat,
it can actually change your performance. also without it, you could
have a cyl or so running actually too warm and others too cold. or one
side of the engine running hotter than the other thusly doing wierd
things to the cylinder bore over time. Not counting getting all that
muck lodged up into the cylinder jacket.

I dont' know. it might not hurt or change a thing, but it was put
there for a reason. Maybe the thermostat is better at use when
running in extremely cold temps.