Burned Impeller

[Renken2000Classic]

Howdy. Thought I'd share my first start of the season incident. There was a little misunderstanding between my wife and I about the water, and I got maybe 10sec of water to the drive from the hose, while the engine ran for prob 1 to 2min at most without water.

It was enough to burn the impeller though, as all I saw coming out of the hole in the housing when I looked was smoke (my curved cover is always off). I killed the engine and I'm like "Where's the water???" Lol.

I guess I don't understand exactly how that works since when I put the hose on with the housing off I expected to see water coming out one of the holes, but there was none. I pulled the hose from the t-stat housing and back flushed it and got water flowing out the other side like that though.

I've got a kit to install (wanted another Evinrude like I put in there before, but had to get a kit with the housing since mine started to melt a little). I'm hoping there's nothing bad that's happened besides that.

Btw, I've been on the site for nearly 4 years. Just lost my PW so had to re-register. Prob easy to guess who I am since the posters in this section are fairly limited.

'88 model w/an '86 drive and a 4.3L.

 

[Roadking57]

Hello and welcome back!

 

[Scott Danforth]

all the rubber bits in your exhaust will be burnt as exhaust with water is 220 degrees, and exhaust without water is 900+

 

[Renken2000Classic]

Changed the impeller and housing today and ran it for a few minutes. Everything seems fine; water spraying out the weep hole (or whatever it's called), etc.. I don't think I ran it long enough last Friday to burn anything else up. I wouldn't purposely run it for 1sec like that (as I told my wife after the fact), but yeah.

I wanted to take it out tomorrow morning, but still need to do some cleanup that I wasn't up to what with other projects and sech. Leaves mostly, though it's covered a lot of the time.

 

[Redrig]

A good unscientific test that I use (and I'm sure I heard about here on iboats) .... is put your hands on the risers, they should be warm but not hot.

That tells you at a minimum your impeller is pumping. It doesn't mean everything is perfect within the cooling system but it's good starting point......water is flowing.

 

[Lou C]

Keep in mind that the water muffs force water in under pressure which is not the same as running it in the water. I would back it in at your boat ramp & if no one is there run it for a while to check temps & make sure there are no leaks from the exhaust hoses.
An overheat can burn the exhaust hoses but it can also melt the water tube gaskets in the outdrive.

 

[Renken2000Classic]

Thanks y'all. I'll report when I find out for sure. I always do a test run on the first outing of the season, like me and just one or two of the boys as "crew". Seems extra important this time.

 

[Renken2000Classic]

Finally got to take it out today. Everything seems fine. Ran well, temp between 120 and 180, oil pressure above 40psi, etc. Did a few back and forths near the dock, stopping and checking for water in the bilge and that, before taking it out further.

Had a little slow cranking scare after we'd anchored for a while. It finally caught though after a few tries and some starter fluid. I'd put the battery on trickle overnight, but that wasn't enough apparently. Need to tighten the alternator and PS belts too.

The rest of the weekend's going to be wind gusting to 30+. That with a million people out - no thanks, lol. Today was very nice.

 

[Scott Danforth]

You should never need starting fluid