Sucked up some sand

[newt5005]

97 Alpha One Gen + behind a 4.3l v-6. I ended up on a sand bar in a local river (bad decision, another story) and before I got off, I sucked and spewed quite a bit of sand. Once free and back at the dock, I ran the motor (in gear & on the trailer) for a few minutes to try and clear as much sand out of the motor and drive as I could.
Fast forward to last week when I was pulling the (blue) plugs for winter, I noticed a lot of sand draining out with the water. Sand was mostly coming out of the port side drains. I got little sand or water from the starbord side, but I always get more water from the port, so I didn't put much stock in that at the time. I would estimate almost a half cup of sand mixed in with the water from the port side.
I am scheduling a new impeller in the spring but should I be concerned with the sand already in the water passages? Does the water go to both sides equally or first one side and then the other, if so, which side first? What would be the best procedure (short of ripping the engine and drive apart) for getting the most sand out? The boat and drivetrain is in good repair and appears unaffected at this point. I would rather try and take care of this now rather than post one of those "overheating" questions later.

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Sucked up some sand

Sand will accumulate in the engine block over time. You could try to flush the starboard side a bit more. Repeated flushing via the drain plugs is probably your best approach.

I recently rebuilt my engine and the water passages were about 1/3 full of sand and iron sediment after 20 years. If sand build up becomes terminal, then popping out the core plugs for flushing is the next step.

 

[cr2k]

Re: Sucked up some sand

With your new impeller in place next spring you could run on muffs with the block plugs out for awhile. Just make sure you get enough water in the exhaust to protect your rubber parts. Other then that I would not worry about it too much.

 

[CaptainKickback]

Re: Sucked up some sand

The problem with sand is that it is heavy and doesn't disolve in water. So once it finds a place to rest, the water just flows past it. So, you need to move a lot of water, quickly to get some of it to move. Probably can't deliver enough water on muffs.

 

[rte592]

Re: Sucked up some sand

this may sound a bit crazy but
If your going thru the trouble to pull the freeze plugs to flush the dirt out.....get a 1/2 inch clear plastic hose connected to a shop vac attachment and vacuum it out.