Thread: 1974 Tohatsu B18D outboards

Originally Posted by yerimaginaryM8

Some early outboards did not have tell tales. Years ago I had a 63 18hp johnson seahorse and it had no tell, pretty sure even into the 70's some Johny's had no tell. you had to look for water coming out the leg through the exhaust port about 2/3 down the leg. If it has a tell you'd think it would be visible somewhere on the castings. If it blew water out of the exhaust and didn't appear to get visibly hot running in a bucket getting smelly/steamy etc it might be ok. Those cheap point and shoot infrared thermometer guns are handy for checking external engine temps.

Correct. My 1976 85hp Johnson outboard sent me spare trying to figure out where the tell tale should be coming out. In the end I twigged, and looked it up on line. So just carried one of those cheap thermometer guns as insurance if things began smelling warm.