Hi,
This might sound like a dumb question, but while changing the head gasket on
my merc 3.0, I noticed that the thermostat was missing. My question is: why
does a marine engine even have a thermostat? I can understand that in a car
you want the coolant to heat to a certain extent to provide heat to the
interior, but on a boat engine where you have an unlimited supply of cool
water (the river) why would you want the thermostat to prevent cold water
from circulating in an area of the engine untill it reaches it's set
temperature and opens?
Thanks.