I totally shredded to impeller. Got the engine shut down in time (~205 degrees, which is where my warning light is set to go off). The engine ran great on Saturday; This happened Sunday morning.
I pulled the entire pump off and the hose from the sea water strainer. Between the the pump and large U of hose from the sea water strainer, I found ~90% of impeller. I was thinking I would weigh the remnants against a new impeller to see exactly how much I found (though there are some small pieces in the driveway that I will probably need to add to the pile).
Should I be worried about finding the cause of this? Or, do I just want to pop in a new new impeller and go? I don't want it to happen again, the Sherwood 17000 impellers aren't cheap (I spun the pump in my hand, bearings seem ok but I'm no expert)
If missing parts are already inside water passages, you could have furure cooling related problems. If that engine has a visible thermostat, remove it and start searching for missing bits. How old was that impeller, probably dried out.
Impeller had about 75 hours on it. It was less than a year old. I weighed a new impeller: 14.8 oz. Old impeller pieces: 15.1 oz. I'm going check the heat exchanger too... I'll try to back flush it. I don't know if I can actually get into it.
75 hours is really low, have you had a overheating problem due to water intakes obstructions and impeller runing almost dry and heating up for some minutes ? If not, impeller material leaves much to be desired.
Nope, never overheated before. Never run it dry - always have the garden hose hooked up if it's not in the water.
Took some picture of the pump itself and put them on boatdiesel.com. I don't really think that I need a new pump.
Oh, and I was told remaining parts are probably in the gear cooler and probably didn't make it to the transmission. I didn't even know that I had a gear cooler!
That's not even all of it; I actually found some more pieces in the driveway later.
Back flushing the system: I stuck the hose into the of back of the heat exchanger so the water was running through the heat exchanger and the gear cooling system. Water is now coming "out the in"
New pump: Only $100 more than a "major rebuild kit" from Sherwood.
