Clogged intake

[BAHILA / PCramer6]

I took the boat out on Sunday to refuel at a dock up the river.  The wind was blowing about 20 mph and along with the low tide had blown all the water out around our dock at the end of the Metedakonk River.  The wind was catching my t-top enclosure like a sail and with my engine slightly tilted up i drifted somewhat out of the very narrow channel.  I kicked up a lot of mud but got free and noticed my engine not pissing out cooling water.  Next thing I new my engine alarm went off and immediately used its safety shutdown.  I frantically tried to navigate my drift perpendicular to an empty slip and was able to tie up temporarily.  I tilted the motor at full and tried to clean out any visible rocks or debris from the intake.  I ended up waiting about an hour for the motor to cool, smoking cigs and silently cursing,  started it back up and idled back to my slip while keeping a close eye on the engine temp light.  The wind was so hard at this point I got to the slip next to mine shut the engine down and someone on the dock was able to help me pull the boat into mine.  The boat was scheduled to have a new impeller kit installed this week but my question is have anyone else had this problem before?  Did I handle it correctly or is there a way to trouble shoot on the water with this problem.  I was alone and did the best i could.  Thanks

Pat

[Hotrod]

very risky running like that..  if you made it back, your probably ok.  remember just because you don't see water from the discharge doesn't mean it's not pumping..  that line is the first to clog..  best test is running her and setting you hand on the head.. it should get hot.  but not to the point it is painfull. prob..time for an impellor change.

[BAHILA / PCramer6]

I was about 50 yards away from my slip when it happend and immediately tied up at an available empty slip and waited it out for a while before trying to get back.  It didn't overheat comming back in.  They're pulling the boat Wednesday for the new impeller kit.

By the way I talked to Dale and Danny at Pro Marine Racing and their both interested in your offer for advertising.  I believe it was you who had the offer.

Pat

[CapBob]

A lot of times you pick up something and it gets caught up just before the exit hole. Take one of those plastic spray straws you get with WD40, etc. and run it up the discharge hole, or for that matter a pipe cleaner. Better than 50% of the time it will clear.......

[BAHILA / PCramer6]

thanks Capt.  I was looking around the boat for something to stick up there to clear it...didnt even think about the little red straw

[bdgrbu]

If you are having the pump replaced this week, then I wouldnt worry too much.

As far as trouble shooting goes, the facts are that you ran through some mud, lost the water stream out of your pisser, and then got an overheat alarm.  If all of this happened in a short amount of time, then most likely you lost water pressure going to your powerhead.  If it were just a clogged pisser, you would still have water circulating around and probably wouldnt have got the alarm so quickly.  The pisser is just a bleed.

If you lose the stream, sometimes you can try giving the engine a quick rev to try to increase the pressure to clear the weeds or whatever.  But if you are already overheating, you dont want to make you problem worse.

When you restarted to go back to your slip after sitting a while, did the engine Pee then?

Again, I wouldt worry if your getting work done this week anyway.

[BAHILA / PCramer6]

No ..when i started it back up after letting it cool down for about an hour it didnt "pee"  it was dribbling down the lower unit but no stream. I didnt give it more power then idle because i didnt want it to overheat again and I was trying to make it safely back to my dock trying not to get blown into the marshes. And yes it did happen all rather quickly and I didnt run the engine before the hot alarm went off for more then 2 min.  The alarm went off by itself then as a safety the engine automatically shuts down.

Thanks for all your inputs everyone
Pat 

[BAHILA / PCramer6]

Got a new impeller kit and had the motor backflushed.  Running the motor yesterday still found some buildup around the outlet and used my girlfriends hairpind and cleaned it out right away.  Thanks for your help..running like new

[IrishAyes]

Glad to hear you are back on the water.  Things should start really getting hot soon.  Can't have any down time now. 

Joe