Older Supra Question

[bam3352]

Hey Guys,

At the beginning of the summer of I picked up an 87 Saltare. I love it. I can from a Correct Craft Mustang 17, so the Saltare is a great improvement in many ways but most notably it's size and ability to be a great cruising boat in addition to capable watersports boat. I wake surf mostly, but also do a bit of everything.

The boat has run great, except for this past weekend it started to overheat. It is fine at idle and up to about 10-15 mph but once you get above that the temp goes up all the way up very quickly (2-3min)....if you come back to idle it cools down to normal operating temp within 4-5 minutes.

I figured I had an impellar problem so I opened up the pump. The impellar looked find but a new one is on the way anyway, however, I found a bunch of rubber pieces clogging the pump passage ways. The looked like pieces of an impellar, but like I said, mine was completely intact. Anyone have any idea where else a bunch of rubber pieces could come from that would clog the impellar? I'm thinking maybe the inside of the cooling inlet hose, but they don't look like the same material.

Also, I'm hoping this resolves my cooling issues, but i'm not sure.

Any ideas would be helpful....thanks.

[87SunSportMikeyD]

I read posts by one guy whose hoses were deteriorating from the inside out. So he cut a chuck of hose off and sliced it open and sure enough little rubber bits everywhere.

Or they could be bits of an old impellor. Maybe someone changed it out but didn't know to flush the lines.

ps - i'm sure you will love the boat and congrats! Welcome to the club. Time for some pics, we love those the most, right guys?

[Salty87]

impeller is the most likely culprit. you should be able to squeeze the other hoses and get an idea of how much life is left in them. new hoses are a fairly cheap project if you go that route.

you probably want to pull the thermostat too and see if any pieces made it that far.

have you pulled the hose off that leads to the transmission cooler? there's a little grate in there that can get clogged up and reduce flow. you should also have a sea strainer on your water intake, before the transmission cooler.

i like your choice in boats!

[87sunsport454]

A couple of years ago I had the same problem. The inside of the hoses started to fall apart. Also I had a issue with the coolent. When I changed all of my hoses it was still running hot,not over heating but hot, and I could not figure out what the problem was. When the engine overheated it would blow out the engine coolant so I filled it up with water. Well that was the problem I didnt have the right amount of coolant/water in the tank. It seemed like a far fetched idea but that was the problem.

[bam3352]

I don't know if coolant would be the problem as this thing is raw water cooled. I was going to open up the thermostat, but I'm a little worried, I'm new to working on boats. I have a fairly extensive experience wrenching on jet skis, but boat are a new world for me and they are much more expensive if I screw something up. I will check the hoses and i'm thinking of putting a sea strainer in also. Any recommendations on what brand/type to buy?

Just so I don't mess this up, the thermostat housing is directly on top of the motor right? Is this something that is complicated to take off and get back together, or it easily handled. The boat has the 454 if that helps to describe it to me.

I will take some pics in the next couple days and post them. It's a red one. Cosmetically, the outside is a little chalky, I'd like to try and buff it out and shine it up a bit. I'd give it a 7/10. The interior has some small rips and such but nothing major. I'd say a 7.5-8/10. The carpet is shot and needs to be replaced...3/10. But so far I've put on about 40 hours and the motor and performance have been great....until this overheating issue started.

Thanks for all the help.

[87SunSportMikeyD]

Carpet is shot but you are fairly sure the floors are ok??? Wet sanding will do ya right for the hull.

[bam3352]

The carpet is actually not that bad, there is just one large rip where I had to pull up the floor to fix the vacuum connection to the speedo. The floors are relatively solid....there are no soft spots except for one a few feet in front of the motor box.

One side of carpet is just very worn from use. It's not the left outside, weather beaten carpet type of shot that I think you are thinking of. I know these boats can have floor and stringer issues, but I'm a grad student and couldn't afford a boat with fully fiberglassed stringers and floors right now. Well I could, but I didn't want a 19 foot moomba closed bow. I actually like the room and performance of this boat so much that I would think about upgrading to a newer model with the full fiberglass once I actually stop paying money for school and start making money for myself. I think they started the all glass stringers and floors in 94 or 95 right?

I just want to get the overheating thing sorted so I can get out on the water later this week or weekend.

I'm also thinking of throwing a tower on over the winter, but I kinda feel bad about drilling the boat. Even though it isn't perfect, it looks good sittin' next to the dock just the way it is.

[saltare inverts]

I think the tower will make it look better. Get a tower. We do need pics.

[Blackntan90]

Dont worry, I felt kinda bad about drilling mine too...but just measure carefully!! And please post some pics!!

[jasonba1]

changing the thermostat is no big deal at all you should have no problems at all right on top of the engine. Also since you havent had the boat that long bet someone changed the old impeller that was shot and that rubber was never pulled out when the new one was installed