OMC Cobra vs OMC King Cobra Impeller

[Bulbash]

Guys, I'm trying to help one of my friends who has a 1992 king cobra with 7.4 HO engine. Apparently, impeller kits and all parts are obsolete and not available unless you ready to pay $250 + per kit. I was talking to one of the techs at the marina and he suggested that if I modify gasket and wear-plate of the regular cobra impeller kit I can reuse regular cobra housing and impeller... Did anyone had any experience with this modification?

 

[Idlespeedonly]

I believe the king impeller is longer than the standard, and the core is brass instead of plastic. I dont believe you can modify anything to make it work. I thought I saw where some company started making king cobra pumps. But I have not found it yet.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Howdy, That impeller is a huge problem. Some people have tried using other impellers but while the overall dimensions might be close, the shaft size is also important. Even if you find something close, there's still the risk of an overheat because the wrong size impeller might suddenly self destruct with no warning. Your best bet will be to install an engine driven raw water pump. That is of course going to probably be expensive but with the right pump, impellers will be relatively inexpensive. If that engine has electronic ignition or EFI, he has MUCH bigger (and expensive) problems since parts for the Spitfire IGN are NLA.

 

[Bulbash]

But would the regular cobra housing fit in the same way as king cobra one? I think that capacity of a regular cobra impeller is more than enough to cool down a large V8.

 

[HT32BSX115]

If you could make it fit, there's no reason not to try it.

But I think it has been tried and it didn't work. I don't know why they made them different. I think most people have went to the Volvo type engine driven pump.

 

[jerryjerry05]

I think the tail shaft where the impeller fits is a longer unit than the regular shaft on the smaller cobra.
Or try the salvage yards for a Mercruiser pump.