Sucking up sand and mud

[Julian]

That thread was painful to follow!

To the OP....I wouldn't make a habit of this. You likely dodged a bullet...sucking sand into your cooling system is NOT a good idea!

 

[txav8r]

Tx_Dj mysteriously disappeared from our community over yonder a few months after he recovered the boat. I talked with him a few times while he was trying to recover it. It was no doubt stressful, and he may have sold or he may have just bowed out due to the stress, I don't know. Credit goes to him for sharing the cost of miscalculating.

 

[dan144k]

@bumpy
I hit reverse (hard) once in shallow water probably 3', while loading on trailer, and it kicked up small gravel into the intake and destroyed my impeller.
So I try not to use reverse in super shallow water anymore.

I would guess water is deeper 15' from dock.

Just sharing information.

 

[Ernie]

I have owned my boat for seven years now and today was the first time I got something sucked up into the impeller. I was loading the boat onto the trailer and the wind got me sideways so I hit the throttle in reverse a little hard and then in forward and thats when I heard the worst sound ever. I finally got it onto the trailer and when I got home I checked it out and found a stick wedged between the impeller blades on the starboard side. I was able to get the stick out through the clean out and from what I can tell from looking up underneath the boat it did not do any damage to the impeller. Brand new impellers and rings BTW.

Does anyone know if this could have caused damage to the pump? The sound and vibration was terrible so I let off right away.

 

[Bill D]

Nah, happens all the time. If it were a rock or something, I would pull the pump and inspect, but a piece of wood for a short period shouldn't do any damage.

The awful sound and vibration was from the cavitation in the water, not parts contacting each other. If you get back on the lake and still hear noise, it's possible you didn't get all the debris out of he pump.

 

[txav8r]

I have owned my boat for seven years now and today was the first time I got something sucked up into the impeller. I was loading the boat onto the trailer and the wind got me sideways so I hit the throttle in reverse a little hard and then in forward and thats when I heard the worst sound ever. I finally got it onto the trailer and when I got home I checked it out and found a stick wedged between the impeller blades on the starboard side. I was able to get the stick out through the clean out and from what I can tell from looking up underneath the boat it did not do any damage to the impeller. Brand new impellers and rings BTW.

Does anyone know if this could have caused damage to the pump? The sound and vibration was terrible so I let off right away.

When you found the stick wedged between the impeller blades and the pump housing, did it break off or did it come out clean? I have had it happen, and others, that the stick is trapped and when it dries out, it may shrink and come out easily. But the blade can pinch the wood and trap it, so it may not be easily removed without pulling the pump...which is a 30 minute job out and back in. All that noise and vibration was merely the stick causing cavitation and turbulence, along with the imbalance in the pump. Once it is gone, it should return to normal.

 

[Naples700]

Help,?? I ran into sand bar,
alarm came on, buzzer,!! I guess overheated alarm,,
Would not go forward or reverse.
I turned off and called sea tow
I got towed back to dock.
Please help,, is it just sand got sucked in?
What do I do to fix it?????
250 hp efi mercury.
please help, I hope a easy fix,!!

 

[Nightmare]

250 hp efi mercury.
WHAT?

I landed on a sand bar last week. As soon as I felt the boat dragging I cut the motors.
After we got the boat off the sand it started up and ran with no problems.
I never had any alarm.
I assume you would have to suck up a LOT of debris to set off an over-temp alarm.

 

[Adrian @ JB Solutions]

I don't know anything about those motors. With the Yamahas you will clog the cooling jackets and need to pull it apart to clean.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

Help,?? I ran into sand bar,
alarm came on, buzzer,!! I guess overheated alarm,,
Would not go forward or reverse.
I turned off and called sea tow
I got towed back to dock.
Please help,, is it just sand got sucked in?
What do I do to fix it?????
250 hp efi mercury.
please help, I hope a easy fix,!!

That is a v6 mercury outboard power head on a jet drive very common years ago . I assume you are very new to jet boats, so the first thing you need to understand is the pump supplies the thrust and the water to the cooling jackets of the engine, if you tried to drive off the sand bar you filled the pump with sand , shells and possibly rocks, since you started the engine once you were off the sand bar that tells me the pump was not locked up however the drive shaft could be broken.
As stated previously the water jackets could be filled with sand or just the hose that supplies the power head and exhaust with water.
During the tow you probably washed out all the sand from the pump just by dragging the boat in the water so first check to see if you have any sand etc in the impeller area.
If you do not see sand there you may want to have a shop clean out the water hoses from the pump, to tell if the power head water jackets are ok run the engine on a hose as you would do when flushing if it does not overheat the water jackets are ok and it is probably just the water supply from the pump that is blocked.
As for forward and reverse , if your pump was filled with trash and not making any thrust you can not move forward or reverse as that thrust is the same just being redirected by the reverse hood etc.
One other possible cause would be a broken drive shaft then there would be no thrust or water for the power head so look in the pump for the impeller to be turning while the engine is running on the hose if it is the shaft is ok.