Help Impeller housing leaking before trip

[Yankees39]

Headed for a long weekend boat trip to DeGray Lake Arkansas tomorrow so I changed the oil last night. I had the boat hooked up to a fake a lake to run the boat and heat the oil up. Water was coming out the exhaust and all was good. I did rev the boat for about 10 secs to 2500rpm all was good. I was also trying to diagnose and test the spark plugs so I ran it a couple more times at idle the last time I started water would not come out the exhaust. The engine got to temp and we shut it off and I changed the oil.

WELL I put it in the lake today to check oil level and make sure all was good and NOPE water is pouring out of the impeller housing. I'm on my way to pickup a new impeller and housing (luckily Palmer Power in Houston had it in inventory and was willing to stay late till I get there).

My question is did reving the engine to 2500rpm cause this on the fake a lake? or did I have the water pressure on the hose turned up to high? Or am I real unlucky/ lucky depending on how you look at it that it is just a old housing and cracked right now from age?

Could something else have caused this like a blockage? I should know more in a hour when I pull the housing off? Anything to look for. Any way to check for other problems that could have caused this?

Thanks it always seems these things happen hlbefore big trips

[TigeFamily]

Fake a lake is notorious for losing seal and not providing enough water to impeller, ESPECIALLY if you rev it up...it will starve for water since the higher the rpm, the more water its sucking in. Likely just did not have enough flow to impeller, but there is also chance there was already an issue and that was just enough to set it off. Best to install a strainer into your system for running the boat on the hose if you are handy. Even tho I have strainer built-in, I still don't run mine at over idle when on hose for that reason and only do it when I have to.

[Yankees39]

Impeller housing is cracked all over.



Now I wonder if there is anyway a blockage in the line that somehow caused this. I agree it was probably me just reving the engine to 2500rpm and I have had the boat for 4 yrs and never changed the housing just the impeller ever year. Housing very easily could be 18yrs old and was just weak. That's what I'm hoping at least.

Could I shove a hose into one of the water lines and see if water comes out the other line.

[Jetdriver]

Probably just the combo of being old and the other stuff added on. Plastic gets brittle over time. Replace it with a metal housing. New impeller, good to go.

[Yankees39]

Since its such short notice I got the OEM housing and impeller got it on and will test again tomorrow morning before we head out. I didn't realize they had metal housings. I'm gonna have to looks into that.

[freeheel4life]

The metal housing has a different support bracket that mounts to engine block to hold the pump housing steady compared to the plastic one. Those plastic ones aren't the best, but are in lots of boats. See impeller wear into plastic quite often. We regularly replace the whole housing as a kit instead of just replacing impeller. It's only another 50$. Sierra sells one that is much less than merc/quicksilver oem part. Unfortunately have changed some of these after just two years of service. Wear plate is always good but when you look at surface on housing it is commonly grooved and pitted.