Spring tides in Maine have a nice feature that involves reaching far up onto the shoreline and pulling every last bit of seaweed and deposited junk back off the beach and into the bay.Ībout a mile from our mooring I noticed the exhaust note change like less water was being spit out. We were motoring back in zero wind on a spring tide day.
#Notch raw power cracked#
So why is this impeller already cracked and ruined? That’s an easy answer. If you been reading, and paying attention, you’ll know that I replaced this impeller only a couple of months ago in April and now, as I write this, it’s only late July.
#Notch raw power free#
If you do it every spring, or every time you run it dry for more than a 30-45 second period, or under restricted flow due to a blockage in the strainer or intake system, you should have a trouble free impeller and never throw a blade or lose flow due to a worn impeller again. Changing an impeller costs less than changing my engine oil and filter. It took me just twenty minutes, even while photographing it, and the access for my large camera was not very conducive.Īn over heated engine or a thrown blade can cost many, many times more in both time and money than the few minutes and the minimal boat bucks required for this simple maintenance. I pay $16.00 for the impeller in our Westerbeke and it takes about 8-10 minutes to change it. I look at it this way, impellers are cheap insurance.
Some feel this is overkill and you’ll need to decide for your self what your maintenance schedule is. I change my impeller every spring regardless of condition. Finding all the missing impeller bits is important in order to prevent further damage or overheating issues. If this happens you’ll have a much larger job on your hands in terms of finding the missing piece. If run hot for too long they can throw a blade or lose a chunk that can lodge in a hose, elbow or in the heat exchanger. Impellers don’t like to be run dry and they don’t like heat. A simple mishap like forgetting to open the engines raw water intake, or a partial weed plug in the intake, can kill an impeller in short order. Raw water impellers are a wear item unfortunately they do not always abide by a time or hours of use schedule. The most complicated aspect of the task is physical access to the pump. Changing an impeller, on many engines, usually takes less than 20 minutes even if you are fairly slow. Changing an impeller is not a daunting task and it’s one that every boater should consider adding to their arsenal of DIY maintenance.
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