Sea water impeller

[JohnnyBravo]

I have a 07 VLX and the person who winterizes the boat told me I should consider replacing the sea water impeller since the boat is two years old.

Is this true? What does a sea water impeller do in layman terms?

[wienrdog]

Many people replace the sea water/raw water impeller every year. Their thinking is better safe than sorry and it's a relatively cheap DIY item - particularly for DDrives. For V-Drives, replacement is a bit tougher because it's at the rear of the boat under/behind the muffler.

It depends on where you boat, but I've been fine so far with every 2 years.

The raw/sea water impeller draws lake water into the boat to cool the engine. They are prone get getting brittle and throwing vanes/fins which will cause an overheat.

If you search, you'll find lots of info about them - even in recent threads.

Edit - add link to thread.

Edited June 22, 2009 by wienrdog

[JohnnyBravo]

Thanks for the info.

[srab]

I have a 07 VLX and the person who winterizes the boat told me I should consider replacing the sea water impeller since the boat is two years old.

Is this true? What does a sea water impeller do in layman terms?

Yes, change it. It costs about $30. Pretty simple to do in my v-drive. 10 minutes or so

start to finish. Of course, a mechanic will probably want to charge you $90 for labor.

When your impeller fails, the raw water pump no longer effectively sucks water from the

lake to circulate and cool your engine. If you're not paying attention, you'll end up with

a serious overheat that could, potentially, ruin the engine. If you are paying attention

and you immediately shut her down, it'll probably just cost you a tow back to the dock plus

the cost of parts and labor to replace [and fish out impeller fragments from the tranny screen],

but it'll still ruin your day.

Learn to DIY. Keep the old one on board as a spare, just in case. That way, even if your

impeller fails on you, you can replace it right then and there and still have a great day on

the lake.