Pretty painless, had to outsource for some work, but all in all pretty painless.. Thank you to everyone for questions answered

Josh get  rid of that pos gate valve, and put a ball valve on there

are you on crack? i will always prefer the gate valve over the ball valve...a ball valve is designed for either off and on...a gate valve is designed for water flow control! turning on your water hose is always a gate valve...i dont know about you, but sometimes i dont want my hose either full on or full off...mark dont make me bust out the 64 pack of crayola crayons and draw you a picture!!!!!!

the valve on my boat has never been run wide open!!!! i see around 180 at idle, and around 160 running acorss the lake! im working on some stuff with some machine people to make a nice bolt on setup run in closed loop "heat exchanger" because honestly efficiency of a motor is around 210 degrees!!!!! what is wrong with a trick billet elec. water pump with something that keeps a constant water temp without filling your block with sand, yet it is not hard on the eyes to look at?? thats where my thinking is at these days!

Break out the crayolas Josh, I wanna see a purdy picture   And yes you can regulate the water flow with a ball valve just like you can with a gate valve. The one thing also is you dont have a stem in the ball valve that will rot away like the one in a gate valve, in water

i've had waaaaay to many beers tonight to bust out paint! it'll have to wait till tomorrow my friend, but i still stand my ground on the gate valve vs the ball valve...i think the best way of thinking as of how i stand at my current drunken status is when i had my 5' beer bong! that beer bong had a ball valve, because it was either on or off...."we wanted to get drunk" if we wanted to sip wine, and talk about how cool out jaguar cars looked, and wanted to beer bong some wine we probably would have had a gate valve so we could sip on it!!!! hope ou understand my methaphor in that, because i am far too drunk to explain myself more than once!

Use a gate valve. Ball valves are no bueno IMHO      ...A gate valves packing nut can be snugged and it prevents it from opening/closing....I also put a Zip Tie through the handle once things are balanced out....

Now I would however lose the hard brass nipple coming off the pump and go with hose barbs and quality high pressure hose. Vibration can snap that 3/8" brass nipple like a Vlassic Pickle...


Who's impeller is that? It looks hard anodized...

GT

Always check your gate valves....I bought a new one to put on my white boat when I put it together, and trying to create a bit of heat in the motor at elsinore....shut it all the way off....WATER STILL CAME OUT THE DUMP!  Stupid valve would only close about half way.  Went to Home Depot Speed and Marine and found a couple more in the bin that had the same problem.  I thought I'd seen it all.

 

I do know that there is one thing to be aware o nowadays...

Red brass (sometimes called copper-ed brass or leaded brass) is now lead free in most areas. This new method makes the valves and nipples much weaker than previous parts.

I normally make a pill to thread into the barb on the pump that drastically reduces both cavitation in the cooling water and flow capability. I use a 1/4"X1/8" reducing bushing and drill it out smooth, it normally makes about a 1/4" to a 5/16" hole and allows me to run my balance valve mostly open and almost makes over pressurization impossible....

As for the semi functional gate valve, sometimes you get exactly what you pay for....Red and White or Nibco all the way.

Gate valves were never really designed to be open and closed often, there design offers many improvement opportunities.

The problem with a ball valve is they don't lock down and move way too easily...Of course this wisdom comes from running a bouncing beer can at over 80 MPH up a whitewater river....

GT