Pump intake grates- thinking of trying something taboo

[Scottintexas]

@swatskito get the jet pumps realigned.

How do you realign the jet pumps ? what's the indicator they're not aligned?

 

[jcyamaharider]

About a 1/4" drop on the pump shoe to the impeller housing. It is bad on both motors. I think my boat was built on a Friday.

 

[jcyamaharider]

Nevermind @swatski found the bondo at Home depot. Thanks for the write up!!

 

[swatski]

@swatski where did you get that bondo at? I looked on amazon and nothing. My boat is at SCBM and has been there for 4 or 5 months to get the jet pumps realigned. I am tired of not having my boat and I think I am going to do it myself. I think it is just the bottom plate needs to come off and re adjusted. I want to smooth everything out like you did after I do this.

I would think regular Bondo would be okay too, I like this stuff though, easy-ish to work with, sands well, and seems to hold up after about 1hour in the river (lol, FWIW). It can be a bit hard to find, Home Depot usually will have it, mine was from Manchester/Balwin HD I think. As with all polyester things, fresh is key. If it looks super dusty at the back of the shelf - I would look in a different location or go with regular Bondo from AUtoZOne or some other place that sell a lot of it.

Getting the pump "shoe" off can be a nightmare as I understand it, some use a wire to cut through the sealant to separate it.
Keep us posted, also curious how did you find the alignment issue, was it just wear ring wear?

Let me know if I can help, if you want to pull the boat into my driveway and we can work on it together next week - evenings.
If I make it back from the Chicago/STL trip, lol.

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[swatski]

Nevermind @swatski found the bondo at Home depot. Thanks for the write up!!

Exactly! I was just posting a response. SOrry, I'm slow.
If you can get a "flapper" sanding wheel I would think it could be very useful, I have one but it is not a hex and my regular adapter seems broken so I could not use it. Those "drum" sanding things work okay though, but I would prefer the flapper for some spots it would make it easier.

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[jcyamaharider]

My boat under load would cavitate real bad. I pulled my pumps one day and found the misalignment. I then purchased the lucky 13 cones thinking it may help but I didn't have the same luck as everyone else. I tried my best to smooth it out with 5200 but no luck. I will fix the issue and be back to full traction this summer.

 

[cbpagent72]

I work right next to tristar manufacturing they make custom metal shop items. They might be willing to create a cad design for a stainless grill if there is enough interest.

Tristar Manufacturing

www.tristarmfg.com

 

[Liveto99]

Interest, but looking for anti seaweed grill

 

[jcyamaharider]

About 12 hours in the garage Saturday after I picked the boat up from the dealer. It isn't perfect but it is 200% better then what I was dealing with. Everything is smooth transitions now.

 

[Liveto99]

When you run it can U report the difference in speed or mpg please

 

[jcyamaharider]

When you run it can U report the difference in speed or mpg please

I speculate that I will not notice any change in speed or fuel consumption but if I do I will report back. My main reason was the cavitation issue.

 

[swatski]

When you run it can U report the difference in speed or mpg please

It is so difficult to get those numbers right, changing just one variable with everything else staying equal.
That said, the less air in the water passing through the pump the more efficient thrust generation. Cavitation can be caused by air leaking into intakes but also from water vapor when it is boiling on contact with rough surfaces. Smoothing those out should do the trick.
My pumps appear to be working extremely well after the BondoFiber porting.
FWIW - we burned around 20 gal of fuel (21?, I think) in the first 52 miles of the trip from Lake Michigan down Illinois River, which was way less than I expected.

My next move is to one more time re-clean up, re-sand, re-port the pumps, and then coat with Belazona 1341 (@Bruce considered that and found the product).
I'll report back of course.

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[Liftr]

I don’t get cavitation under acceleration or under load, but I get a very pronounced case whenever I make even a very slight right hand turn. This is in the middle speed (15-35 mph) and RPM (4500-6000).
I do have some messy black sealant gobs in the pump tunnels.
Does this sound like the problem?

 

[swatski]

I don’t get cavitation under acceleration or under load, but I get a very pronounced case whenever I make even a very slight right hand turn. This is in the middle speed (15-35 mph) and RPM (4500-6000).
I do have some messy black sealant gobs in the pump tunnels.
Does this sound like the problem?

I wish I could answer that, not sure if that's normal.
I have AK Cobras and bleed relatively little speed in turns, as a matter of fact my right hand turns can be hard enough to eject the captain from his chair...
(...don't ask)

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[swatski]

I got the Belzona "supermetalglide" kit, sanding tools, and radiator brushes ready to go for round 2 of pump porting.
If we could only get the rain so stop...


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[Bruce]

@swatski, I am excited to learn how this turns out!

 

[swatski]

@swatski, I am excited to learn how this turns out!

@Bruce - me too!
The price per volume is a bit absurd, there is what looks like a cup of the primary, but they claim this is good for a 13sqft application... We will see. As always with these things surface prep is the key, not looking forward to it, lol.

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[drewkaree]

How's the smell of that stuff, respirator may be required.

 

[swatski]

How's the smell of that stuff, respirator may be required.

1341 is supposedly epoxy based. Some other are polyurethane. I’ll be prepared, some of it needs done with your face practically inside the intake tunnel, lol.

I’ll need to contact them again, can’t find any manufacturing or expiration date on the package anywhere, yet. It’s made in UK and who knows how long it sits, I don’t want to start, these things have limited shelf life and generally don’t age well.

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[swatski]

Just talked to them, the distributor I’m dealing with is extremely responsive - very impressive they follow up and respond to emails within minutes!


They provided a guide to deciphering the manufacturing dates and provenance, posting here for future reference:





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