First maintenance adventure...

I'm going to be brave and include the dumb stuff I did too. This will be long-winded. I'll put a TLDR at the bottom.

I'll preface by saying, I'm actually pretty mechanically inclined... but in an absentminded professor sort of way. Also it was like 95 degrees with 100% humidity so I'll blame some on delirium from heat exhaustion/frustration... yeah.

The story starts with a used 1993 Sport Nautique (which I mentioned in my intro post).

I was not super thorough in my investigations when we test drove it and, while it did run buttery smooth for 1400 hours, I probably should have snooped a little more.

It's the 351w "Pro Boss". The ignition had already been retrofitted with a cap and rotor so one problem solved. Carbs recently tuned. A couple flags during conversations with the current (2nd) owner - the strainer was opaque ... and I couldn't get the bowl off easily (or turn it at all without popping something in my wrist/elbow) - and he said he had tried to replace the thermostat years ago but they sent him the wrong one and now he "wasn't even sure if there was one in there"

But he had it 25 out of the 26 years and it did, in fact, run great.

After poking around some and seeing the temp go between 160-180 I figured he just put the wrong thermostat in and ran it that way (turned out to be true).

When I did get the strainer bowl off, no screen in it (!)... and it seemed to have some odd damage like it had been melted a little. Not sure how it could have happened. I started to thing it was a salvage part or something.

So I went and got some parts. Put a screen in the bowl (ended up buying a whole new strainer later because getting that bowl on/off was really irritating especially in the heat), got a new impeller and thermostat.

Let's start with the dumbest thing first. I replaced the impeller. Some of you will see where this is going immediately when I say the next thing. I was having trouble getting the impeller back in the housing so I removed the hoses so I could work on it better.

...
...
and then put it back in backwards without realizing it at first. I should have known (and I will never forget) by the sound (the engine sounds quite different with no water in the exhaust).

I spent all day thinking about why it would overheat with the new impeller and when I was lying in bed at midnight I suddenly realized what happened. Then I cussed myself out until I fell asleep.

In the morning, I turned it back the right way and presto.

On the upside, it sucked some seaweed out from inside the engine or elsewhere as it forcefully removed all the water from the system and spit it out through the intake which I found in my new strainer screen... on the wrong side of the screen.

On the downside, It got quite hot before I really panicked and shut it down and I may have burnt the exhaust hoses a little (I was able to tighten the port one and it stopped dripping but the starboard one still drips a little.) and I was noticing a little wisp of smoke by the starboard exhaust that wasn't there before (I think) but only shows up when you run it hard...

So I almost destroyed the boat the first week I had it.

I did change the thermostat, but I was stuck with not enough time and not the right tools to clean all (at least three) of the old gaskets off the housing and cover so now that drips a little but the temp is 14-160 like it's supposed to be. Exhaust manifolds are nice and cool and everything seems OK.

As of now, it's still running great but drips water from one of the exhaust hoses and slowly from the thermostat.

This was more of a sharing than a cry for help, but ideas about the wisp of smoke and whether I should try to get new exhaust hoses would be good, I suppose.

My first thoughts about the smoke - I ran out of time and have not been back to do a proper investigation - is that the valve cover might be leaking... it smells a little more like burning plastic than oil though and it's not steam (I don't think -like water from the exhaust gasket?)...

Sorry about the length there but I don't know any boat folks (I would say boat nerds but I don't know if that would offend so) personally so most of the people I talk to about boat stuff just smile and nod while they wait for me to shut up... So I'm glad to be posting here, wasting the time of you fine people with my rambling about boat stuff.

Here's the TLDR:

1. I'm a dumba**
2. I put the impeller in backwards
3. I might have fragged the exhaust tubes and maybe a gasket or something
4. But it still runs great.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far. Hopefully future posts will be more condensed.

If it’s running up to speed and cool you are OK. If you really collapse the exhaust hoses it will choke itself up and run slow.

The dripping and exhaust hoses can be addressed in the off season.

Oh yeah. About the impeller/raw water pump nomenclature. I removed the raw water pump while changing the impeller, which is part of the raw water pump, and then put the raw water pump in backwards.

And the thermostat, leaking ... I just ran out of time and had to slap it together to see if it would function properly.

I'll get it eventually.