jamesgangnc wrote:
Are you sure that no one has removed the drains on the manifolds or the
sides of the block? Both locations have removable plugs designed to
allow the engine to be drained for winter. When I winterize my boat I
take them out and leave them out until spring.

It is not old enough for corrosion to have taken out the casting aka
"freeze" plugs unless someone mistakely used steel ones when it was
built. One of the differences in marine engines is the use of brass
casting plugs isntead of steel ones.

Changing the impeller in the outdrive would not have any effect on the
water coming out the sides of your engine so this is a different
problem. When the original impeller went south how long did the engine
run overheated? Perhaps the overheating could have had some other
effect leading to this problem. Such as melted water or exhaust hoses
on the manifolds. The manifolds will get very hot if the boat is run
for any length of time without cooling water. The rubber parts in and
connected to the exhaust system will not take it for long before they
melt.

The motor only ran long enough for me to park my truck/trailer and
for the wife to pull to the dock to pick me up. I would roughly guess
around 3 - 5 minutes. Following the replies last night, I went back
into the engine compartment and found one of the expansion plugs laying
next to the bilage pump. The other plug is still in but must be cocked
for it is leaking. This one will be a problem for it is directly
behind a motor mount.

I am going to purchase a couple of plugs and install them to see if
there are any other pending (hidden) issues. I had been told that I
could get expansion plugs from a local parts dealer that are expandable
by way of a bolt instead of the "tap in" types that would be supplied
by Volvo (or aftermarket). Has anyone used these types of plugs? Can
anyone recommend how to replace the plug that is behind the motor
mount? It would be much easier to take it to a local repair shop but I
want to do the work myself.... how else am I to learn the
fundamentals?