Strainer idea for RWP...suggestions?

I don't see why you couldn't just plumb in a regular strainer. They're usually located after the pick up but I would think they should work after the RWP.

Nah, not rerouting, just adding another after the rwp. I agree that they're kind of big and you'd probably need to route it some where that it'd fit with longer hose.

I'm sure the mcmaster carr one would work, I'd check the flow number so you're not adding a restriction.

With this you'd never have to change your impeller, just keep an eye out for black rubber in the strainer - then change.

Or just buy a new impeller every couple of years or so. ;)

C-Bass wrote: If you were talking about adding another one of those sea-strainers, they're too expensive and a little bigger than what I would want. This is kinda what I'm thinking...$25.00 from McmasterCarr.

My guess is that Mark is talking about the more compact (and much more common) Sherwood strainer used on 86+ CC's. SkiDIM sells it for ~$40. Looks just like the one from McMaster- most likely theyre the same.

Thanks for clearing that up Tim. Only had one CC so far...so excuse the ignorance on other models.   

Pete...that's pretty incredible. I figure with no more hours than I get to put on the boat in a year, mine should easily last 8+ years. Do you remove your impellers in the off-season to prevent them from taking on the permanent bent over shape? Just curious, it seems that whatever maintenance you use is working...and obviously the lower hours helps as well.

Thanks again guys.

Pete - I could be wrong (don't have time to check at the momnet) but I think it is in the CC owners manual to remove the impeller for layup.

C-Bass wrote: worry about little pieces of impeller blocking water passages in the engine, I was wanting to do something to prevent this from ever happening again.

Wow, are you engineers listening to yourselves!!!

Maintenance...change it every 2 years regardless of hours and forgitaboutit!

8122pbrainard wrote: I feel the practice was created by the marinas wanting to make sure you brought the boat back in spring so they can "summerize" your boat. It's become one of the "old wives tales" now!!!

Haha, You don't think the Marina's would actually do such a thing....

81nautique wrote: Where's 79 when you need him? I'm trying to be funny but my first impression is HUH???. Your going to put in a strainer so you can wait for the impeller to fail so you can save $33.95 every other year in maintenance? Meanwhile your on the end of the ski rope and your wife or kids are driving and they have no idea what that smell is as your engine slowly welds itself together.

Haha, yeah I see your point Alan, and yeah you could kinda laugh at the logic, but there is at least a tiny bit of logic to it:

-I do not live on a lake, in fact the nearest lake is about an hour away. Mix that in with very limited vacation time, and it equals probably less than 50 hrs. on engine time a year. At this rate I expect my impeller to go WELL beyond 2 years.

-If my wife ignores the temp gage enough to let it get hot enough to the point where the alarm starts going off, and then procedes to ignore that even further to the point where she ignores the steam coming out to the point where the engine welds itself together....I'll gladly find a new wife

-Even if you go by the 2 year part swapper routine and get new impellers all the time, there is still a small risk that an impeller could let go and this little gettup would just save you the worry of finding all the bits/pieces of impeller.

-Saving $33.95 every other year is step #42 on my "100 steps to get rich quick" program ...Step #1 is..."Don't ever test drive a Nautique"..we all know where that leads...

Thanks Alan for the alternate point of view though.

I've been waiting for the opportunity to tell this story and it looks like the time is finally come. Last fall we were camping on Roosevelt Lake here in Arizona. About a year and a half before that I put a Sherwood strainer on my Malibu and plumbed it in after the RWP with the same idea that C-bass has here. The strainer was a bran new unit and so were all the hoses that I used. I remove and flush the strainer about every 2-3 times of use. Getting back to the Roosevelt trip,....upon arriving at the lake we launch the boat. I get it started and Frannie parks the turck/trailer. I pick here up at the pier and we start out for a ride. About 2-3 minutes later I here the engine start to change tone. I shut it down and lift the doghouse. My bilge is full of water up to the bottom of the floor. I pumped the water out and started looking for the problem. It didn't take long to notice that the strainer cup was no longer attached to the rest of the unit. When I found the pieces in the bilge it was obvious that the cup burst under pressure. It had stress cracks around the perimeter of the cup and separated in a couple of places around the threaded part. I held the cup in place while Frannie started the engine and drove us back to the pier. It was almost dark when we got back and put the boat on the trailer. The next day I found a piece of hose long enough to bypass the strainer and that got us through the weekend. We had no problems with overheating after bypassing or since then so I'm convinced that this incident was not due to any restriction in the hoses, manifolds, thermostat, engine or tranny cooler. I also pulled all the hoses and the thermostat and found no debris. When I got back home I re-installed the strainer but plumbed it in between the pickup and the RWP. It's been there since with no cooling related issues. I have to believe that strainers of this type are not designed to operate under any pressure. Perhaps in my case the strainer was partially (or more so) clogged and this contributed to the pressure build up. At any rate I would not install the Sherwood strainer downstream of the RWP.

The strainer is rated at 150 psi but at 70*. The polypropylene will rapidly loose strength at high temps even though it's glass filled. The clear bowl is nylon and not glass filled so weaker. Even so, it's odd that it failed because the flexible impeller pump max's out at 30 to 35 psi!!!

eric lavine wrote: if i wrote a transmission maintanance manual, it would include transmission should be pulled and inspected every 2 years

With a notation that the inspection be done only by FFM!

BuffaloBFN wrote: I learned in the aquarium business that if a filter was difficult to get to...it would seldom be cleaned. That said, I have engine removal down to a science.

Filter? I heard through the grape vine that your engine removal is just to clean the bilge!!!

i think some are made out of Viton