Well with temps starting to plummet, I thought I'd best put the babes
to bed. both m boats, I took them out of my warehouse, and ran them
home and hooked them up to the hose. Threw in a container of sta-bil,
ran the 3.0 up to operating tempfor about 15 minutes, then took it
down to the gas station and filled th tank., then took it back and
commensed to drain the water. no problem. winderizing a 3.0 is a snap.
very easy, but when I went to clean out the drain plug on the exhaust
manifold. I ran a nail up in there, and out came great flakes of rust!
lots of flaky rust. could this mean a new manifold is in my future?

Now on the 23' Marquis, same procedure. dump in sta-bil run for 15
min. fill tank. But while I was letting it run, I shifted the gears,
and this has a Morse type shifter. Big chrome device, long lever an
while shifting into forward or reverse, the gears caught but it seemed
like tey wernt fully engaged. and at about 1500 rpm, there was a deep
rattle coming from the lower end. Engine runs great and smooth (350 GM
Alpha 228) and I noticed that the throttle was a bit stiff, could this
be a cable needing adjusted or replaced?
The rumble, Gimbal bering going out? *ugh!*

With engine shut off and gears enguaged it all feels tight at the
prop, but when running and shifting it seems like there's some type of
gear noise. It's really hard for me to describe. Bow, I DID have it
slip out on me a couple times this summer when under a hard throttle.
fearing a runaway, I immediatly pulled back on the throttle,a nd the
gears caught. If I took it easy on acceleration, it would hold, but
when nailing it, it would kick out about 2600 rpm.

My chiltons manual doesn't say much on trouble shooting, so that's why
I'm asking. The boat is a 23' marquis cuddie, and I guestimate theres
at least 18 of throttle/shift cable considering the turns and bends.

What do you think?

Thanks!
Tim