No water pumping into boat

[jrodkyle]

I recently purchased a 2003 Cobalt 240 with a 5.7GXI volvo penta and the DP outdrive. I beleive the boat is cursed. We have been out 3 times and towed back in 3 times. Starter was the first problem, fuel pump and trim motor, now that those have all been replaced, I took the boat out and it alarms within 10-15 mintues. Temp runs up to 210-225, boat alarms and shuts down. I began to troubleshoot on the water and realized that the raw water pump (which is also brand new) isn't pumooing any water at all into the motor. I beleive I have an issue in the outdrive, but really do not know what else to do to troubleshoot the issue. I have taken the water pump empeller apart several times. It still looks great and it also runs while atteached to the cleanout port just fine and circulates water while hooked up that way. I hook up the muffs and no water circulating. I taped the inlet ports and ran water through the cleanout port and I do not notice water leaking anywhere that stands out to be a problem. Also keep thinking that my problem shouldn't be in the outdrive because the entire outdrive was submerged while on the lake and still no water pumping into the boat at all. I spent the whole day doing everything I could think of and I am at a complete loss now. I did losen all of the bolts to drop the lower unit and now fear that I need to reseal the gaskets to insure no water getting into my lower unit gear housing and causing more issues. I did not drop the lower unit completely because I have no clue what to expect when doing this. Not sure if i should remove props first and drain fluid then remove the lower unit and possibly the entire outdrive or look somehwhere else first. Sorry for the long post, just want to cover everything possible up front. Look forward to hearing someone elses expertise with my issue.

 

[dypcdiver]

4 Main common problems

1 Not removing the old pump "O" ring and adding a new one to the pump body.
2 The pump body has a seal behind the impeller and if it is worn the pump sucks air.
3 The hose that conects to the transom shield and power steering oil cooler can be sucking air.
4 The plastic nipple in the outdrive that can crack or not be installed correctly (but you say it was sbmerged)

Go to the adults only section I belive there is a section that covers this.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Pull the drive (you should do it anyway to inspect the alignment, ujoints and bellows)

Then back-flush from the raw water pump

Most likely there is something plugging the PS cooler. Or the hose fitting is broke

When done, replace the raw water impeller

you will also need to inspect your rubber exhaust hoses as without water, they are most likely burned (on inside)

For future reference anything over 180 is too hot, and 200-225 is damaging hot

 

[alldodge]

Check the the hoses are on the pump in the correct order, the intake hose is on the bottom. If the pump was pumping no water then the new impeller would be damaged

With temp reaching 225, I hope it didn't blow a head gasket

 

[jrodkyle]

I have taken the raw water impeller off several times to double check. The o ring is in place and seems to be working properly. The impeller itself still looks new. I covered it in vasoline, so I beleive it will be fine to reuse. I just changed it last week. I have checked the connections at the PS cooler. Everything inside the boat is tight and appears to be in working order. I took the intake hose off of the impeller housing and put the water hose in it and get great water flow out of pickup on the lower unit. I am pretty sure my intake hose should be on the top also. I have found diagrams online to confirm this. However, I could definitly be wrong, I am no expert at all. I even used duct tape to block off the pickupo on the lower unit and put water into the system from the flush port to see if i could force water out of the area of problem and could not determine a positive prolem with this test either. Probably just because I really do not know exactly what to look for. When I hook the hose up to the flush port, the impeller pumps water and the motor runs perfect. Thank you guys for your time. Let me know if I am missing something simple.

 

[alldodge]

Your correct intake should be on top, crank mount, my bad

When I hook the hose up to the flush port, the impeller pumps water and the motor runs perfect.

Post a pic of your flush port setup

 

[jrodkyle]

The flush port is close to the impeller pump. I hook the water hose up, start the boat and it pumps water. That tells me that the impeller is working.

 

[Thalasso]

The flush port is close to the impeller pump. I hook the water hose up, start the boat and it pumps water. That tells me that the impeller is working.

Then it's time to take the drive off and look at the intake hose and plastic nipple

Look at item's #9 and 18

https://rinkerboats.vanillacommuniti...transom-shield

 

[Scott Danforth]

and back-flush the PS cooler. most likely seaweed or other stuff is plugging the core

 

[jrodkyle]

Anyone ever removed the lower unit? I started to remove mine. took all of the nuts off and 1 bolt. I'm Sure the 2 peices seperated slightly from gravity. I decided to put it back together because I didn't know what i was doing. ANy concern that I could now get water in my gear oil? Or am I ok sinceI did tighten evrything back up?

 

[jrodkyle]

Also any chance it could be a bad impeller? I did not use Volvo Penta brand impeller. It looks fine but a friend told me that vovlo impeller is then only one that will even work. It looks identical to the volvo impeller I removed,

 

[alldodge]

It pumps water thru when connected to the flush port but does not when connected to the drive, so just like Thalasso said, time to pull the drive. The trouble is between the flush port and the drive

 

[Scott Danforth]

between your flush port and the inlet strainer on your drive, you have the following potential problems...... a plugged PS cooler, or a broken inlet fitting.

so pull your drive, back flush the PS cooler and look at the inlet fitting.

why would you be pulling the lower unit?

 

[jrodkyle]

It sure why I thought I needed to pull the lower unit. I saw a diagram and it looked like there was a gasket that could be bad between the lower unit and the upper drive. Now I’m concerned that I messed up by taking the nuts off and one bolt to remove the lower unit. I. Ow understand that the problem is most likely the plastic fitting between the drive and the transom.