[oldfielder]

Do yourself a giant favor and buy at least the seloc, if not the merc, manual for your motors. As an i/o guy myself, my comfort level with boating has increased exponentially as my understanding of my motor has improved. One loose hose-which to me sounds like your cooling water-most likely means some others and these things need to be checked with care. Unlike the the o/b guys, you have some potentially boat sinking problems sitting inside your bilge with a motor in there.
I'm really not trying to lecture you, but looking back to when I first got my i/o, I did some stuff unknowingly that could have caused me huge problems and I just got lucky.