Did my knucklehead family kill my engine?

[pap]

Leaving lake yesterday, son took a hard heelside digger and a mild concussion, had to jump in after him. So we're all a little worked up. I usually back the trailer up and son drives the boat up on it (wife a big chicken) and then I pull out.

Well he/they forgot to shut the engine off. I notice this probably 30-45 seconds, maybe a minute after we exit the water as we drive to the "dry off" area.

I could hear something definitely not sounding right back there, but everyone on the boat just totally forgot to shut it off.

Can anyone tell me the likelihood of doing damage to the engine from such a bonehead move? Should I have it looked at or do anything before I take it out or just hope for the best. Of course it was just idling, but I have no idea how long it takes to do damage either to the impeller or the engine itself.

I'm really hoping for good news here...

Oh, and it's a good 1.5 hours to any boat shop, so I can't just drop it in easily for a quick check.

[Sluggo]

I had a similiar thing happen with mine. Pulled out and it was about 1 minute before I noticed a strange vibration. I did end up trashing the impeller and had to fish out all the pieces, but no other damage. I would definately replace it ASAP if it's not already in shreds. I think it would take a few more minutes to heat up to the point it would cause serious damage, but that is just a guess.

[matt k]

I'd expect a big old iron block/iron heads motor like ours to handle a minor overheat without much trouble. As Sluggo says though, the impeller is another story. They're cheap and easy to replace, so I'd do that and otherwise just hope for the best.

[docdrs]

Well if nothing was on your screen the engine probably did not overheat. At 195 or 200 a big warning comes up on your dash screen. At idle I would expect all to be ok other than maybe your impeller. I would pull it and take a look. If it was only a minute I would think the impeller is still probably fine as there was water in there. If you start it dry and run for a minute then thats another story. One other issue are the exhaust pipes.....feel them to make sure they were not overheated.

[pap]

I was in the truck pulling so I have no idea if anything showed up on the screen. I don't have an extra impeller and we just replaced it this year. Nearest boat shop is over an hour away and I doubt given the holiday I'll be able to get it looked at before this weekend. Next week we are actually scheduled to attend a church camp for teaching kids how to wakeboard/ski and I'm really concerned I'll get there and the boat will croak.

My wife suggested at the time putting the boat back in to check it but I was so angry I just wanted to get home. Looking back now she was probably right (as usual....).

Is pulling the impeller out on one of these engines a difficult thing? Can you visually inspect it (i.e. if it looks normal, it's ok)?

thanks for everyone's help!

[docdrs]

do you have a water strainer? you can take it to water , start it up and watch the water get pulled thru the clear strainer, which should tell you your impeller is prob ok. you can also remove the rear black starboard transom cover to get at your impeller cover, remove the cover ,then with a flex mirror or prob a medium sized mirror take a look at the impeller.

[pap]

ordered a "fake a lake" today - will hook it up and run the engine to see if water is running through and it doesn't overheat. If it runs fine then I'll replace impeller at end of season / next season startup.

[Jetlink]

ordered a "fake a lake" today - will hook it up and run the engine to see if water is running through and it doesn't overheat. If it runs fine then I'll replace impeller at end of season / next season startup.

Careful with this as a test. The hose and fake a lake can supply positive pressure to the impeller and mask an issue if the impeller is not strong enough to draw water on its own.

[pap]

Well that is a point I hadn't considered. I ordered the impeller at the same time so I guess I'll just replace it when it comes to be safe. I'm just hoping that would be the worst of it (damaged impeller). Getting to the thing looks like a pain (beneath the exhaust manifold where the cats meet) so I hope I can get the job done.

[docdrs]

Well that is a point I hadn't considered. I ordered the impeller at the same time so I guess I'll just replace it when it comes to be safe. I'm just hoping that would be the worst of it (damaged impeller). Getting to the thing looks like a pain (beneath the exhaust manifold where the cats meet) so I hope I can get the job done.

Its an 8 minute job , i believe


http://www.moomba.com/msgboard/showt...light=impeller