Re: Where to find a water pump kit for 66 33hp evinrude?
seedpws, that is a real good question and I don't know if any of us have a good scientific answer. But I would like to offer some thoughts, having seen lots of impellers come and go through the years.
First, since my name was mentioned, no I would not knowingly sell something that I don't have confidence in. But even that statement has to be qualified because there were some pretty awful impellers made in the past, and yes I did sell them because they were all there was. And it is partly due to those awful impellers that today's change-em advice came about.
Not all impellers are created equal. I am sure that even today, there are some awful-quality ones on the market. Let me just jump in here and say that the 33hp one you are concerned about is one of the best ever made. As long as we are talking genuine OMC that is. After-market, well you decide on that one. However, OMC was also responsible for those awful ones on some models back in the early '70s.
Getting to the shelf life issue, of course nothing lasts forever. However, I just went out in the bright sun and gave a real critical look to the one that I have, again since my name was mentioned. I wouldn't hesitate at all to use it. Bear in mind that when installed in the pump, the vanes are under stress from being bent back. And they usually are not all bent in the same way they were intended. Due to the shaft rotating backward when the engine bounces off compression, some will even wind up in sort of an s-curve. In any case, when the vane bends, it causes stretching of the rubber. Stretch it long enough and it complains about bouncing back, and is likely to start to develop cracks. I have to suppose that exposure to heat, cold, oil, and whatever other environmental issues also play a part.
All this does not even begin to address the issue of the bonding of the rubber to the hub. That is where the epidemic of failures occured in the '70s. As I said, the 33, genuine OMC, did not have that problem. But the V-4s certainly did. And OMC engineers didn't even know what was the reason. Since I have been out of the shop since 1978, I am not sure that they do even yet.
OK, this is way more answer than you asked for and contains some personal opinions. Just my 2 cents, take if for what it's worth.
