94 Echelon Mercruiser Part No longer Available

[Muzik Man]

I have a 1994 Echelon with a 454 (7.4) Cross Ram Injection engine. I have been told that the thermostat to cooler hose (part number 32-806488) is NLA (no longer available) by local Mercruiser dealers. I have also checked on line with other suppliers and they also indicate that this is NLA. While the part on my motor is still functional, I can see where the end of its life is near.

Would anyone know of a solution to my problem. I have looked at products such as coolflex (www.coolflex.com) but they are expensive and are questionable for marine applications.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ibelieve]

Check with SKIDIM.COM

/Steve

[martinarcher]

I have a 1994 Echelon with a 454 (7.4) Cross Ram Injection engine. I have been told that the thermostat to cooler hose (part number 32-806488) is NLA (no longer available) by local Mercruiser dealers. I have also checked on line with other suppliers and they also indicate that this is NLA. While the part on my motor is still functional, I can see where the end of its life is near.

Would anyone know of a solution to my problem. I have looked at products such as coolflex (www.coolflex.com) but they are expensive and are questionable for marine applications.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Bummer man. Any pics of the hose in question? It might spark some ideas.

[Muzik Man]

Thanks for the replies.

I will check with skidim. I have done biz with them before and they are nice folks.

Also I will try to take some pics this weekend.

I need all the help I can get.

Thanks again....

[lakejohanna]

I have the same boat/engine (very cool) and had a different NLA hose go out about a month ago (32-821416, sea pump to oil cooler). After seaching locally and on-line I found one at marineengine.com I did check there just now and it doesn't appear they have it though. Some thought on alternatives:

- I think you could use the coolflex or any generic bendable substitute as long as the bends aren't too extreme. The hose I needed was very bendy and very short. There was no way I could have gotten that to work.

- My back-up plan was to make something out of 1" copper to span the bendy parts, then use a straight section of plain hose to connect back to the engine. I wouldn't be pretty but I believe it would work. I didn't get to that.

- What I did do while I waited for the new hose was to cut the hose at the failure point and attach the two pieces using a straight hose-to-hose fitting and a couple hose clamps. This worked fine and if I'd done this before I'd ordered the new hose I wouldn't have ordered the new one. There needs to be a single bad spot in a reasonably straight section for this to work.

Good luck. There is always a way. JK

I have a 1994 Echelon with a 454 (7.4) Cross Ram Injection engine. I have been told that the thermostat to cooler hose (part number 32-806488) is NLA (no longer available) by local Mercruiser dealers. I have also checked on line with other suppliers and they also indicate that this is NLA. While the part on my motor is still functional, I can see where the end of its life is near.

Would anyone know of a solution to my problem. I have looked at products such as coolflex (www.coolflex.com) but they are expensive and are questionable for marine applications.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Muzik Man]

JK, Thanks for the insight.

It is a cool ride and quite the legend on the river here.

Evidently some kids that were big into boarding owned it previously (I am the third owner).

While this makes for a lot of conversation everywhere I go (hey I know that boat I used to ski behind it), the down side is the kids were kids and did not take care of it. All of that said, it is one tough boat; it should be used in a commercial because from what I hear they were pretty hard on it.

I am trying to treat it right and remedy some of the previous neglect.

I would not trade it for another one except when I pull up to the pump with that big block.....

Thanks again for the assistance......

[jk13]

I was going to suggest taking the hose off and finding your most "old school" auto parts store. You know, the one with 5,000 random hoses hanging from the ceiling, and see if you could find one (or part of one) that would work.

If you can't find one, cut out the bad section (unless it's all bad/dry rotted) and use hard line to replace those sections.

lakejohanna, you are at least the third Echelon owner on the crew with the initials JK. Also, good advice.