No water to raw water pump

[ricky127]

Hello....I have a 2002 Stingray bowrider with the 3.0 gs-b. I had some problems when I let it get low on gas. It was bogging and wouldn't idle well. I pumped everything out the tank and pulled the bowl off the Holley 2300 carb and cleaned it. Hooked up the ear muffs to it today and cranked it. I got the carb adjusted and running good. I looked behind the boat and didn't see water pumping out. About that time, the sounder went off and was running hot. I shut it down. I pulled the hoses off the raw water pump and found pieces of the impeller. I pulled it apart and the impeller was shot. Bad thing is, I just replaced it last year. With the hoses off the impeller housing, i turned the water back on. Shouldn't I be getting water pressure there? I have back tracked and tried flushing everything backwards and forwards. I'm getting a new impeller tomorrow. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[Don S]

Re: No water to raw water pump

With the hoses off the impeller housing, i turned the water back on. Shouldn't I be getting water pressure there?

Probably not with muffs.
Your problem may be as simple as to low a water pressure/volume on the hose. If you never ran it over minimum idle, it didn't pull enough suction to pull water all the way from the drive.
Turn the hose full on, start the engine to around 1200 to 1500 rpm until the pump primes. Should take less than 10 seconds to get water out the back. And check for water flow EVERY time you start it on muffs. You can actually hear when water gets to the back of the boat.

 

[ricky127]

Re: No water to raw water pump

I meant to get back with you back then and I appreciate all your help. Let me tell my story so it may help others. I figured out why it ran hot. It was some very loose old ear muffs that didn't seat well. A buddy borrowed my good ones and never brought them back. Never had a problem with the old ones with my old Mercruiser, being that the impeller is in the foot. Well....I changed out the impeller and back flushed everything. I used a Sierra impeller. Took it out a couple of times and did fine till thermostat froze and wiped out another impeller. Removed the thermostat and was able to get it back to the landing. Replaced thermostat and pit another Sierra impeller in it. Took it out a few times and it did well. Ran hot again 4th time. Flushed everything and pulled manifolds and flushed. EVerything was clean except a little mud in waterjackets. Impeller looked fine, but replaced it again with a Sierra impeller. Took it out 4th of July weekend and it did great! Took it out the weekend after and ran it hotter than heck. Let it cool and waited for a friend to pull me back. Finally cranked it up and ran it back to the dock (twin 3 yo's were hot and crying). We were very close to the dock. It ran hot and wouldn't crank back up when I got to the dock. Pulled it up on the trailer and brought it home. Let it sit a week because I figured the worst had happened. Finally looked into it and started with compression check. Good compression all the way across. Put plugs in and it fired up and ran good. I read how you didn't care for Sierra impellers and I bought an OEM impeller and back flushed everything again. Took all hoses loose and ran the water hose with sprayer on high through them. Cranked it up and now I have alot more water pressure coming out the back then I did with the Sierra impellers. Long story short.....I really came close to tearing up a motor just to save a few bucks. Sierra was like $35 and OEM was $58. I spent way more than that on the 3 Sierra impellers. Had the boat out a few times with no problems. I will always use OEM impellers in my Volvo for now on. And I will say that the 2 looked identicle.....But the results are completely different.