Yard bill for impeller change + bottom paint - picture

$16/ft for a bottom job? Cheap...
My yard charges $43/ft; including blasting all underwater metals clean and re-priming. I provide the zincs, they install 'em.
 
Vince
Did you get to see the impeller? How bad was it? Busted vanes tend to show up in all sorts of odd places further downstream. The one time I paid someone to replace mine they left the old one on the boat and it had barely taken a set.
 
Brian 59 said:
Just out of curiousity what did they do as far as prep work before painting the bottom.
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I was there when they were prepping the bottom. They pressured washed the bottom when the boat was hauled in November (part of the winter storage fee) and then in March they had a guy mask the water line and do some light sanding. Another guy was on paint duty and painted after I left the yard. They used Interlux, Micron CSC.
 
rondds said:
Vince
Did you get to see the impeller? How bad was it? Busted vanes tend to show up in all sorts of odd places further downstream. The one time I paid someone to replace mine they left the old one on the boat and it had barely taken a set.
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Ron

No, never got to see the impeller, so I am hoping it didn't break up and leave crap in the system. When I get back to the marina I will ask the Mechanic what it looked like (and if he back-washed the system)

I did have the engine alarm go off a few times last year when I was out in the ocean running from waves in 5 to 8 ft seas, but I never knew why. I checked the smart craft display for error messages, but it didn't log anything. (at least not where I was looking)

Now I am thinking that the impellers were failing, but they were able to provide enough water flow at idle or normal cruising speed such that everything seemed fine.

Since I never changed an impeller before on these engines, I don't have much to go on, but I am questioning the need to remove the hoses connected to the impeller housing. I would assume that Mercruiser would have designed the unit to allow you to remove the impeller without having to take the hoses off. The mechanic seemed liked he knew what he was doing, he went to some high school in Sandy Hook that specialized in marine mechanics and he said he was Volvo and Mercruiser certified.

Next year when I'm in a yard that allows me to work on my boat, I will pull the impellers myself. I hate not being able to do my own work. I like to know what was done (and what was not done) to my boat.
 
would assume that Mercruiser would have designed the unit to allow you to remove the impeller without having to take the hoses off.
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AH, you expect too much of Merc, or perhaps of SR. In smaller SRs like ours, you have to lift your cranium out of the bilge just to change your mind. The reason I had the yard do my port engine back in 2005 was because I was LOST as to how the hell I would even be able to visualize my pumps. I had gone so far as to buy the impeller, took one or two looks down there and gave up. It was SRO (CSRs older brother) that empowered me to do them myself. IT was VERY tricky but VERY do-able.

In my boat it is MUCH easier to take the entire pump (housing, pulley, etc) completely out of the boat and change the impeller on the bench. By the second time, it took me barely 1/2 hour to get the pump completely back out (I forgot to replace the old belts on so the whole damn thing had to come out again). First time probably took about 1.5hrs!

Our boats are vastly different. You have a serpentine belt, I have v-belts. Your pumps are aft, mine are forward. And as we have established, we have different pump housings. Like Frank said above, if you had the crappy plastic housings of old, it's just dumb to NOT replace the housing while you're in there.

How many hours did you say were on these impellers?
 
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jg300da said:
Yup. Every MPI/MPX engine I've worked on or worked with has had the brass pump housings. A check of the Mercruiser website verifies this. From the 4.3L MPI sterndrive to the 8.1S Horizon.
Oh well, 1999 was a long time ago.
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Have you worked on Crusader 8.1s? I believe they are stainless steel.
 
Ron

My 2006 Merc 6.2's had 90 hours on them. I think the boat may have sat on the hard for most of 2008, but I'm not certain. I bought it last Sept with 75 hours on it and drove it up from Maryland and it ran fine. Most of the trip I was crusing at 4000 RPM's.

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Vince, Although I didn't get the bill yet I had my 2 impeller's changed. Estimate from Marine Max at 800.00. (2 years/130 hours) And my generator as well. (less than 20 hours) I'm really glad I did the generator as you can see from the pictures. I will do the impellers every other year even though Merc recommends 3 years... 300 hours. Generator I'll do every year.
 

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I just had a SR 200 hr tune up, impellor, etc. done plus new bottom paint job(first), outdrive plus wax/buff up to rubrail, on my 04 260 Dancer. Price? $3000. Took pictures of bottom before relaunch, perfect execution. She slips through the water now like glass! I know fuel usage is going to go down. Purrs like a kitten too!!
 
i just had both impellers replaced and system flushed for $600. total. after watching them remove both pumps and diasassemble them to replace the impellers. i couldnt have done it for less considering time, frustration and inexperience. Great job Lake Union Sea Ray!
 
Just an update, I had the yard change the impeller on the starboard engine. Total charge was $403. Not bad.

I would like to be able to do this myself, but since access is tight and you have to lay across the engine with your head down in the bilge, I will just let the yard do the impellers.
 
Vince
My neighbor changed the impellers on his '03 320DA a few weeks ago. He said it isn't that bad a job but he took the muffler and exhaust line out on at least one of the engines. It's ALL about access!
 
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