Did I burn up anything?

[jestmaty]

Hi, noob here...

Have had my Bayliner 175 for 4 years now, only about 100 hours.

Long story short, loaded the boat on the trailer after a couple of hours on the lake. Accidentally left the engine running for maybe 2 minutes while I drove over to the clean up area. Don't really want to get into how foolish I was and my wife is involved, so I ain't saying nothing!

When I got home, I put her on the muffs and did my post lake routine, flush it out. Ran fine and no smoke, smell, no overheat.

Mercruiser 3.0 ltr with the Alpha 1 Gen 2 outdrive. 2005

What did I break? Time to do the impeller anyway? Someone said to check the flappers?

Any ideas? Still learning how to not kill myself while boating.....

 

[m283mark]

Re: Did I burn up anything?

Would definetly replace the impeller. even if every thing checked ok

 

[firemedicmonkey]

Re: Did I burn up anything?

I am still a very big Noobie to boats and to this site, but I have been doing a ton of research on all topics related to maintenance and repair. I just picked up a used boat with an unknown history for the last 3 yrs. So I am trying to sort that mess out...

From a service bulletin that was published by Mercruiser (I believe it is posted here in the adults only section of possibly somewhere else, not sure!)

Running you engine without water circulating in the outdrive pump for even as little as 20 sec can cause catastrophic damage to the impeller.

The water that it pumps is also the fluid that lubricates the rubber impeller as it rotates in a plastic housing. So no water=no lube = burning, melting, cracking, etc.

I am guessing that you have 1) gotten extremely lucky b/c the pump was already wet and was able to not due major damage b/c it had some lubrication 2) You have damaged the impeller and it is still working to some degree

In either case what you have is prolly a ticking time bomb that I would not want to even think about taking on the water any further than I could see and swim to shore...

The water pump repair rebuild kit is like $40 (impeller alone $35) so for a little scratch and a couple hours work... (you can download instructions on here) you can have piece of mind and wallet that you won't be stranded due to a blown pump, or worse stranded with major damage to the motor...

 

[twostroke87]

Re: Did I burn up anything?

turning over the engine just once without water can destroy your impellor, it all depends on how dry the impellor is. Since you had ran it all day, and pulled it out of the water while it was running, you probably got lucky and the impellor had just enough water lubrication to keep itself from tearing apart.

The bad side is you could have torn or cracked it, which means it might work fine for an hour, day, week, month or year but it could go at any time, and you would be stuck on the water. So to be safe, just change it.

 

[mytime]

Re: Did I burn up anything?

I am not really sure if I should post to this thread or not due to its age. I tried to find information about fixing a merc that appears to have had the same thing happen to it as was described in this thread. I just got this boat a few weeks ago and put the muffs on it and got it started after rebuilt carb, replace frozen thermostat. It overheated again. When I removed the impeller it was in pieces some were in the lower unit most are not. How do I clean out whatever to ensure that all of the pieces are out of the system ? Can I put a hose on the engine somewhere and back flush it ? This is a 5.7 Merc with an alpha 1. If this is posted somewhere else I will apologize in advance.

Can someone help me ?
Thank you

 

[Rocky_Road]

Re: Did I burn up anything?

I am not really sure if I should post to this thread or not due to its age. I tried to find information about fixing a merc that appears to have had the same thing happen to it as was described in this thread. I just got this boat a few weeks ago and put the muffs on it and got it started after rebuilt carb, replace frozen thermostat. It overheated again. When I removed the impeller it was in pieces some were in the lower unit most are not. How do I clean out whatever to ensure that all of the pieces are out of the system ? Can I put a hose on the engine somewhere and back flush it ? This is a 5.7 Merc with an alpha 1. If this is posted somewhere else I will apologize in advance.

Can someone help me ?
Thank you

Welcome aboard!

Best thing would be for you to repost this as a new thread. Old threads wouldn't get you the deserved attention!

Good luck...and happy boating!