On Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:04:45 -0500, L G wrote:

Harryk wrote:
On 3/2/11 6:50 PM, dmo@omd. wrote:
hi,

i'm wondering where the water intake is for the cooling system on
outdrives and
outboards. it seems that it should be far enough up that it wouldn't
be in much
danger of sucking up sand, but someone recently warned me to be a lot
more
careful about not starting an engine when the prop is resting on the
sand. how
low is the intake?

Look for intake vents between what is usually called the cavitation
plate and the pointy bottom of the skeg. The intakes typically are
right in that area. I would be wary of starting an engine while the
proper is "resting on the sand."
Who usually calls it that? I've never owned an OB with a cavitation
plate and I've owned almost a dozen.

Everyone was calling it that fifty years ago when I was a kid on an
Iowa lake. It would be more accurate to call it an anti-cavitation
plate, but it is not even that. Its function it to prevent air from
being sucked down from the surface. An anti-aeration plate would be
closer.

Casady