Oil Change . . . I goofed up with the ear muffs!!!

[tpenfield]

I decided to do the seasonal oil change on the engines today . . . I was going to do it next weekend, but I had some extra time and figured what-the-heck. :noidea: As usual, I run the engines for about 25 minutes to heat the oil up so it will pump out easily.

I started on the starboard engine, hooked up the water and fired up the engine. . . . after a few seconds, I heard a loud screeeeech. I went to the stern to see if water was coming the appropriate ports on the transom assembly . . . Nada - nothing. Well, I somehow messed up placing the ear muffs on the outdrive lower unit correctly and missed the water inlet holes. :facepalm: After adjusting the ear muffs to a proper location, water still would not come out, so I think it is a fair bet that the noise I heard was me trashing the sea water pump during the brief time that I ran the engine.

Fortunately, I got it right on the port engine, ran it for a while, changed the oil - no problem. I went back to the startboard engine and pumped out the oil, even though it was cold, and did the oil change. Pumping the oil out of the cold engine took a while, but it is done

I now have 2 new sea water pumps on order . . . I was going to change the impellers this year anyway, but figured I should do the pump housing as well.

Note to self . . . make sure you got the muffs on the outdrive correctly before running the engine.

 

[harringtondav]

Takes a real man to share his mistakes. I drained my block first frost and came back in Nov to heat up the engine to fog. Put on the muffs, started it up and went indoors for 5-10 min. When I came back out no water from the gimbal hsg ports. ...Alpha II impeller had frozen in the hsg from residual water and spun the hub. Lucky. No overheat due to Nov temps. Flappers OK. ..whew. New impeller in the spring. ...same lesson learned about double checking the action down back.

 

[GA_Boater]

Just goes to show that Murphy is always lurking waiting for a chance.

Hope broken impeller vanes are blocking water down below and didn't climb up to the hill to the motor.

 

[Lou C]

Ah yes Murphy!
if you haven’t tried them yet get a set of the Merc/Quicksilver round muffs with the metal clamping rod that goes thru the water inlet holes. These are superior to the Tempo style dual inlet ones I used to use because they fit better (softer rubber flexes better) and because of the clamp they can’t move or fall off.
as far as the impeller having water left in it and freezing what I do when winterizing is disconnect the raw water inlet hose and point it down to drain. Then with the drive all the way down I fill that hose with marine AF till it runs out the water intakes. This will push it residual water out and if you use -100 even if there is a bit of water left it won’t freeze even with temps down to zero.

 

[tpenfield]

Just goes to show that Murphy is always lurking waiting for a chance.

Hope broken impeller vanes are blocking water down below and didn't climb up to the hill to the motor.

The impeller vanes are probably stuck in the oil cooler, which is the first thing they would hit on their way up to the engine (heat exchanger actually). So, I will backflush from the heat exchanger when taking things apart. I probably should be getting new sea water pump housings anyway, so hopefully it will be all good.

 

[Lou C]

Another trick I use to protect the impeller is to hook up the muffs but before turning on the water I disconnected the hose going from the transom mount to the thermostat housing or impeller housing if you have an engine mounted pump; fill that hose with water, re connect and then turn on the water. This helps get water to the impeller faster for the first start of the season. With the boat in the water the hydrostatic pressure pushes water into that hose but on land it’s 100% dependent on how well your muffs fit and your water pressure.

 

[Lou C]

these are the best muffs I have used....

 

[tpenfield]

Yes, I've seen those . . . guess it would be hard to mess the placement of those up

 

[Lou C]

With the dual inlet Tempo ones I used to use they seemed to have changed the stiffness of the rubber, made it too stiff to seal right. The impeller would not prime with the new pair I bought about 3 years ago so I returned them and got the Merc ones, much better it primes instantly now...

 

[tpenfield]

Here are the remains of the impeller . . .
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That was about 5-10 seconds of running without water supply. I backflushed the inlet system from the heat exchanger on down to the sea water pump and then backflushed the heat exchanger from the discharge to the raw water inlet. Hopefully, I got everything.

Note to self . . . don't do that again

 

[tpenfield]

. . . and boy do I HATE installing/servicing sea water pumps . . .

I have the combo water pump / fuel pump on my engines. The mounting holes on the bracket don't like to line up well and I have to muscle the pump to get the mounting bolts to thread. I tried all sorts of things . . . finally loosened up the bolts that mount the water pump to the fuel pump, which gave me enough 'play' to use a persuader to line up the holes.

Stupid thing . . . :facepalm:

 

[GA_Boater]

Do you toss some those magic pills into the gas tank to run the motor on water?

Combo pumps are a terrible idea to save the use of a pulley and/or belt.

Time to launch the new upholstery and ceiling?

 

[Lou C]

One of OMC's better ideas, too bad no one copied it! 20 min job, very easy!

 

[Lou C]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ysj65t93un6dyuy/Cobra running on the water hose.MOV?dl=0

Best Muffs in action...

 

[tpenfield]

Well, I managed to get both water pumps replaced to day . . . took all day though.

The second one ( port engine ) was a bit easier than the first one. Of course getting up and down from the boat a million times, I happened to miss the ladder when stepping down to go get another tool. Fortunately (or not) I hit the outdrive on the way down, so it broke my fall :facepalm:

I just got to put the port outdrive on in the AM to finish up. The starboard outdrive went back on silky smooth, so something must be wrong

 

[tpenfield]

Quick Update . . .

The boat is all ready for launch . . . scheduled for tomorrow 8AM. Of course the sea conditions are supposed to be a bit dicey . . . early AM should be better than mid-day.

I ran the engines one final time, checked for leaks, etc. and also hooked up the computer (Diacom Software) to check the engines for any codes, etc.

Here is a readout of the port engine during warm-up.
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Looks OK. Hopefully all will go well tomorrow :noidea:

 

[Lou C]

lots a data there! hope you have good weather, here its been beautiful. Still got a few more things to do on mine...

 

[tpenfield]

Small craft warnings during the day, then rain later on. Friday should be nice.

I would have changed the launch day to Friday, but the boat hauler is booked for the next week or so.

 

[tpenfield]

It's launched . . . 25 mph winds and all . . .

Final clean-up last night . . .
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I think harringtondav was interested in the hydraulic trailer that the boat haulers use . . . so there are some pics . . .

We usually go a couple of harbors up to launch at a better ramp, then I motor about 7 miles out in the bay to my harbor and mooring. Since there were small craft warnings (25 mph wind, gusts to 40 mph, 3-5 foot waves) we decided to launch locally in my harbor which has a very shallow ramp. Often been described as ' a country road that runs into the water '

The nice thing is that launching is fairly easy vs. hauling out, if you can get deep enough. I told the boat hauler that he would have to go off the end of the ramp with his trailer, but at that point the trailer should have sunk enough to free the boat.

It worked ! :thumb: and I was off to put the boat on the mooring. . . no small feat though . . . I had put my mast buoy out yesterday to easily catch the mooring pennant. Still it took 3 tries because of the wind, etc. by then there were white caps in the harbor :facepalm:

tomorrow should be fairly calm and flat . . . so maybe the Admiral and I can take the boat for a spin after we 'work-from-home'. :noidea:
Here are a couple of pics of the trailer being positioned under the boat.
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[JASinIL2006]

Congrats! Your new upholstery sure likes nice. You did a quality job, there.