Sea water mystery

Got the new parts, starter and thermostat installed them and dropped her in the pond. Pretty much nothing changed. Still no water until bleeding. Air out of the outline on the pump. Tried both pumps. At this point the only thing I haven’t changed is the line from the pump to the oil cooler. I’m going to change that and then also route around the oil cooler and see if that makes a difference.

I put some pictures in my diary

Is the intake hose wire reinforced to prevent collapse during suction?

Good morning.
I took the boat back to the pond before I read your post. Ken. Probably doesn’t matter because as soon as I pulled the hose off the intake water gushed in their full force. I am like 100% sure there’s nothing plugged up there. I’m going to try to post some pictures in a little while.

Can anyone see those pictures?

I think I got it

Oh the suspense is killing me!!   Good to know you have solved the problem...possibly...most likely.  I imagine Ken had a hand in the solving the puzzle??

I might add:
Many thanks to all who helped.
And I am sure you have not heard the last from me. As this winter when I proceed to remove the engine, fix the stringers and floor, etc. I will have some questions.
And if nothing else, I will document as well as I can, my actions over the winter.

Oh OK.  We will just sit back and wait then!  

Have you checked the thermostat housing to verify that you have a clear path through the housing to always supply water to the manifolds when the engine/pump is running?

I will try to clarify what we have done.
First of all, when I say that it does not prime, that is only when you first put the boat in the water when all the lines have bled out. That is when I open the valve on that apparatus in the one picture. That hose goes from the pump to the oil cooler. It is clear so you can see when it fills. So each time we do one of these tests, we have to pull the boat out of the water, let it drain and then put it back in.
After the boat has been primed by opening that valve and letting the air out it then stays primed every time you start no problem.
As for testing if there was a blockage at the oil cooler. Yes, we put a clear hose from the one you see in the picture to the t where it goes into each exhaust manifold. Again we had to crack the valve in order to get flow. And when we did this, as soon as we cracked it, the water gushed up no problem. So we hooked it back up through the oil cooler with a clear hose from the oil cooler to the T. Exact same result had to crack the valve to get it to fill. That leads me to believe the oil cooler has nothing to do with it.
I am still at a loss as to why I have to crack that valve to get the initial “ prime” to fill the system. It just seems to need a little extra bit of help to get it going.
After we see the clear line to the T fill, it’s just a matter of feeling the bottom of the manifold get cool, right away as the water flows up through them on the bottom first. And then you can actually feel the water come back down and cool the top. The only other thing I could think of to do would be to put clear hoses from the front of the manifold to the thermostat housing. I don’t think that’s necessary as it’s obvious when the manifold or cooling.
And yes, when we were running the boat last on the bucket. We had the hose in there, filling it up to observe what was going to happen, and we observed water comes out of both exhaust evenly.
I cannot think of anything else to do or check. Obviously something is not right.
I am more than happy to entertain any ideas someone might have.
My thought is they only made this style of manifold and cooling for a couple of years. And I suppose that’s why they changed it?

Just learned something new… thanks KENO. Great job as well!