A real bonehead move

[1993 celebrity 4.3L]

So I took my 2 young kids out on the lake for the first time without Mom along to help out. She usually drives the boat onto the trailer. This time, since I was solo, I had to tie off the boat and get backed in, then run to the boat. I was a little out of sorts and a little rushed since the launch was very busy at the time. In my haste, and with 2 tired girls about to drive me nuts, I pulled the boat out without shutting down. Yeah, I know, really stupid move. Anyway, I would say it was out of the water no more then 2 1/2 minutes before I realized it. When I shut it off, the motor did not feel extraordinarily hot, and there was no smoke whatsoever.

I got it home and hooked up the muffs, and it seemed to be pumping water just fine and the motor sounded normal. Do you think I'm ok? What would be the first to show damage if there was any, water pump, motor? I'm worried sick since this is a totally rebuilt 4.3 with under 15 hours on it.

 

[tarheelebbtide]

Re: A real bonehead move

If it is still pumping water, you may have gotten REALLY lucky and not have melted anything and not disintegrated the impeller. However, the impeller absolutely should be replaced before you run the engine again because it is most definitely going to fail and when it does, you will overheat, melt hoses, and have bits of rubber impeller clogging all of your water passages. So, get that lower apart and get your impeller changed. You'll probably also want to check all of the hoses in the engine compartment, particularly anything non-metal on the exhaust side. All of that rubber is meant to have water circulating at all times. You probably also melted the rubber exhaust flappers in the y-pipe, so put those on the must pick up list with the impeller. All in all, it sounds like you may have dodged a real bullet, but that doesn't mean you can just go out and run her like it didn't happen. Neither the impeller nor the flappers are expensive or hard to replace. Thank your lucky stars that's all you're looking at. I'm sure Don and others will have more thorough advice and they know infinitely more than I do.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: A real bonehead move

Howdy,

Consider yourself lucky, drop the lower and replace the impeller.

We all make mistakes!

Cheers,

Rick

 

[QC]

Re: A real bonehead move

I posted in SHTs that I did the same once. Same deal . . . pulling out by myself with kids. I'd bet a lot that you didn't hurt anything but possibly the impeller. Mine still pumped as well. Life's too short to stress out, she'll be fine

 

[chiefalen]

Re: A real bonehead move

Replace impeller. If you didn't overheat the flappers if you have them will be fine if they were fine before the incident.

Oil good, runs good, than life's good.