powerhead water leak?

[44Joeman]

Hello to all, I am a new member to the forum and have a question about a "head gasket leak". I have worked on more than one older Johnson/Evinrude that overheated from a bad water pump. Usually a head gasket will fix any issue as they usually go if it got really hot. I have a 79' 35 HP Evinrude that overheated pretty bad. I replaced the pump with a new kit, and sent it on it's way. It pumped good water and ran good. It came back with water in the bottom cylinder. Ok headgasket. I lightly resurfaced the head and put in a new head gasket ran good for a few minutes then dropped the bottom cylinder again(water). I pulled the powerhead and the base gasket looked good. The base gasket where the exhaust tuner bolts on looked good too. My best guess it the exhaust cover gaskets. The head looked good, it looked nearly impossible to crack. Lower crank seal? I'm out of ideas. I've seen this on the older 9.9/15's too.

Any ideas would be helpfull. I'm also looking for all the parts to make this a tiller.
Thanks, J

[boats.net]

May need to resurface block, look for hole in head going into water jacket, hole in inner exhaust plate or bad gaskets, could be lower seal but probably wouldn't run good.

[44Joeman]

I'm going to re-surface the block and most likely put in the next over pistons while it's all apart. I was just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. Usually the head gasket does it. The head is pretty thick aluminum so I don't think it could crack and if it did, I don't think there would be much left of the block ! I'll pull the exhaust cover and check in there, which is where I think the problem is. It has to be either the block needs resurfacing or the exhaust cover. Ran too good to have the lower seal out.

Thanks, J