[vettestr]

Hello Mad,
Boats are as bad as Cobras for ways they get modified or FIXED over the years! In a very basic overview of a lot of the systems I saw (maybe to basic a description) they were radiators in a box.

Fresh lake water was plumbed in and then out of the box around the rad. so an unlimited cold water supply. The engine or engines would swing wildly on temps as t-stat opened and closed if the AUTOMOTIVE t-stat was used and I saw a lot of that. The marine t-stats had holes in them to reduce this swing but as people figured this out they would drill holes in a car t-stat for pennies on the dollar. Problem was that hole corroded bigger or Joe FixIt only had a big or bigger drill bit at that moment. Many T-stats just got taken out all together because what the heck cold is better than hot.. right.

When fixed properly with the right parts they ran a little cool but ran well. Many of these boats were a work of art and engineered to perfection. OTHERS.... well???