Overheating after Unwinterizing

Hey everyone, new to the forum here, but last fall I bought a 2005 Launch SSV and after test driving it I immediately winterized it and parked it until this weekend. I went and reattached all of the hoses and took it to the lake to let the engine warm up to allow for the oil change to go a bit smoother.

Get it on the water and it fires up right away, but shortly after there was a faint white smoke that was coming out of the engine compartment. Shut the engine down and noticed the engine was abnormally hot to the touch. I also took the oil cap off and there was white smoke trickling out of the oil compartment. Temps were right around 180 while going under 5 mph/idling.

Get the boat on the trailer and let it sit for a couple hours and the engine is still hot to the touch. Take the hoses off of the raw water impellor and there was not water in either the hoses. Take the impellor out and there was multiple fins shredded off the impellor. I was told that it was just changed before I bought it, but am starting to doubt that to be true.. should have verified it before firing things up.

I also noticed that one of the hoses running to what I think is the exhaust manifold had the plastic fitting melted. Pics below.

Is there something that was preventing the impellor from sucking water in the first place or was the impellor bad from the start? Also is the hot engine what was causing the white smoke in the first place? Hoping that I haven't caused any serious damage from running this dry for so long.

Open to any tips/tricks for tracking down the shredded fins throughout my cooling system. This is my first V-Drive and am learning as I go.

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Replace the impellar and run it on a fake-lake. Watch the temp. You don't know how long it's been since the impellar was changed since you just bought it. My rule of thumb is 2 years on the impellar, but I also remove it from the pump every winter to "relax" the impellar fins or veins.

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Oh man. Cross your fingers that you haven't done anything too bad. First thing I'd check is if you were getting any water at all. I suspect that answer might be no given that your manifold hose fittings melted. Did you notice any water coming out of your exhaust? Is there a valve on your thru-hull that might be closed? If there's no valve or it's open, then check that your transmission oil cooler isn't plugged with lake junk. That happens to my SSV all the time.

Check your oil. Is it still oil colored? Cross your fingers that it doesn't look like chocolate milk. It's posisble the smoke was from oil that had spilled on the manifold, or from those melting plastic pieces.

Once you're sure you should be getting water TO the impeller, go ahead and change it. When you restart the boat make SURE you're getting water.

As for the pieces of the impeller, I'm not sure I have a great answer for you. Pull your t-stat and see what you can fish out, then run the boat and monitor the manifolds to make sure everything is running at the same temps. A good double-check to your t-stat is that both manifolds should be warm to the touch, but you should be able to easily leave your hands on them. Might need to check the thermostat a few times to make sure rubber isn't accumulating behind it.

I had it at the lake so I couldn't see if any water was coming out of my exhaust, but I'm hoping that things aren't too bad. I wish I had used a fake a lake to catch this problem sooner.

Checked last night and it was valved off, so no water was getting to my impellor. Started tracing hoses to find the shredded fins and found some rubber chunks on the upstream side of the transmission oil cooler. Took a hose and backflushed the cooler. I didn't find anything in the hoses after the tranny cooler, (J hose, tstat, hoses running to exhaust manifold) is it safe to assume that if its small enough to make it through the cooler it is small enough to get flushed out the exhaust?

Will check the oil and see how that looks. It is needing to be changed anyways. Once I get a new impellor and manifold fitting I'll fire it up on a fake a lake and make sure everywhere is getting water.

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Originally Posted by BB121

I had it at the lake so I couldn't see if any water was coming out of my exhaust, but I'm hoping that things aren't too bad. I wish I had used a fake a lake to catch this problem sooner.

Checked last night and it was valved off, so no water was getting to my impellor. Started tracing hoses to find the shredded fins and found some rubber chunks on the upstream side of the transmission oil cooler. Took a hose and backflushed the cooler. I didn't find anything in the hoses after the tranny cooler, (J hose, tstat, hoses running to exhaust manifold) is it safe to assume that if its small enough to make it through the cooler it is small enough to get flushed out the exhaust?

Will check the oil and see how that looks. It is needing to be changed anyways. Once I get a new impellor and manifold fitting I'll fire it up on a fake a lake and make sure everywhere is getting water.

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Curious how things turned out for you? I hate reading these things.. best of luck!

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Originally Posted by SeattleBoat

Curious how things turned out for you? I hate reading these things.. best of luck!

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I'm still waiting on parts, but did check the oil and thankfully no chocolate milk. Was pretty dark but nothing out of the ordinary.

If only one side exhaust manifold fitting melted you may be ok. What does the other look like ? Running dry could have trashed the impeller, but if no water went thru it shouldn’t have made its way to the tranny cooler. Pull your block plugs and see if any water made its way into the motor. The ideal time to change the oil is during winterization. Check your exhaust to muffler rubber pipes to see if they are rigid and didn’t soften up if overheated.

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Originally Posted by docdrs

If only one side exhaust manifold fitting melted you may be ok. What does the other look like ? Running dry could have trashed the impeller, but if no water went thru it shouldn’t have made its way to the tranny cooler. Pull your block plugs and see if any water made its way into the motor. The ideal time to change the oil is during winterization. Check your exhaust to muffler rubber pipes to see if they are rigid and didn’t soften up if overheated.

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Update now that I've had some time to get back into this.. so it ended up that there is some more serious damage unfortunately. I had to replace all four manifold fittings and was able to take it back to the lake and fire it up. Engine was getting water but I discovered that the fiberglass on the muffler took too much heat and has damage. took the muffler off and looked at the damage (pictures below).

Couple questions:
1. Do you think it'll be possible to trim the end connections and push the hoses further onto the end to get to some solid fiberglass?
2. Has anyone tried to repair the fiberglass on these hose connections?
3. If I can't repair the fiberglass I'll probably do a muffler delete and a FAE setup. Has anyone had experience with these and are they worth the money?


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Originally Posted by BB121

Couple questions:
1. Do you think it'll be possible to trim the end connections and push the hoses further onto the end to get to some solid fiberglass?
2. Has anyone tried to repair the fiberglass on these hose connections?
3. If I can't repair the fiberglass I'll probably do a muffler delete and a FAE setup. Has anyone had experience with these and are they worth the money?

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Overall, the mufflers last a long time, but when they have issues there are quite a few people replacing the muffler with FAE system. I would go this route.

The aftermarket FAE people are good to work with. I purchased a system from them in the past.