thermastat for cooling water?

[fishhead2005]

just bough older boat with 1989 35 merc. first time out, had it on a fishing trip and the pee water wasn't coming out until I upped the rpms. marina mechanic said that was normal for older merc motors, that they had a thermostat in them and didn't open until the water was hot enough. I never heard of this, so I'm checking this out...would appreciate any input, experience and first hand knowledge. the water continues to pee slow, not stream like on new motors that I see, and then stops when the motor is idelling but starts right back up when I tack the rpms up. Is this normal? I don't have tons of cash to have a bunch of tests done...the motor was very strong and dependable, but I'm worried about the water discharging or not.

thanks in advance.

fishhead

[boats.net]

The thermostat will affect it. If you don't know when it had a new water pump put in it then probably need to replace water pump.