1999 Sea Ray 180 impeller needs replaced?

[nickelbn1]

I am buying a 1999 Sea Ray 180 bowrider and the guy said he has not replaced the impeller in the 4 years he has owned in. It has been sitting winterized stored inside for a year and a half now and is just being started up again. I was wanting some of your opinions based on your experience on how often you need to replace the impeller on these engines? It has a 3.0L Mercruiser. He said he's never had an issue going that long not replacing it, but others tell me you should replace them every two years. thoughts? oh and how much should it cost for parts and labor to get the impeller replaced?

 

[CliffA]

I am buying a 1999 Sea Ray 180 bowrider and the guy said he has not replaced the impeller in the 4 years he has owned in. It has been sitting winterized stored inside for a year and a half now and is just being started up again. I was wanting some of your opinions based on your experience on how often you need to replace the impeller on these engines? It has a 3.0L Mercruiser. He said he's never had an issue going that long not replacing it, but others tell me you should replace them every two years. thoughts? oh and how much should it cost for parts and labor to get the impeller replaced?

i assume you have a generation II alpha one drive.....if so my 'opinion' is every 100 engine hours or every two years whichever comes first for new impellers....parts are not that expensive...an impeller kit should be around $35.....and the labor should not be too bad....probably one hour of shop labor...... if you are mechanically inclined this is a fairly easy job to do yourself.....

cliff

 

[BillK2632]

Yeah, if he says not in the 4yrs he has owned it, then it's been at least 5yrs - it's time. The Alpha Gen II impeller is very durable, I've let mine go 3yrs with no issues, but I am in clean / freshwater and usually no more than 40hrs a year. What Cliff says is a good rule of thumb, you should be pulling the drive at least every other year to inspect bellows, check alignment etc, so that is a good time to do the impeller.

 

[Lazy Daze]

In clean water, I've seen them go 10 years. But that's usually because the owner didn't know they had to be replaced on a regular basis. Even so, when I've replaced them (after that long period of time), the impeller is actually in pretty good shape. But I've also seen them be in worse condition after 1 year. Here's the thing, though - this is not something that you want to try and push to the limit - the reality is, you don't know what that limit is until you hit it. And then your day is ruined. IF you don't overheat your engine, you also will still likely end up with a larger service bill since all of the little broken/fragmented pieces of rubber impeller need to found from wherever they are hiding in your cooling system.

There is no real "hard and fast" rule as to when to replace them. But this is a preventative maintenance thing. If you are in clean, fresh, deep water (sucking in sand wears them out) - I would probably do it every three years. But again, that's just what I've gotten comfortable with. Some will wait a little longer, some will replace every year - there are worse things that can be done than doing "extra" PM.