Axis Wakeboard Boat Forum

Wakeboarding yesterday and get the allarm "check engine coolant" I imediatly stop the boat and pull the engine cowl. She was hotter than a cooked potatoe. making some kind of bubbling noise and had a burning smell. I let her cool off, then pulled the impeller, was in bad shape and missing a tooth. I am getting a new one today, but the question is did i do damage, what else should i do and should i worry about that missing blade from impeller?. I just did an oil change and temp on readout only got to 215.

Yep- manifolds get hot enough to torch your skin! Shouldn't be any damage. I've heard you can 'limp' the boat back if you're not too far from launch, stopping and letting engine cool but I didn't do that when the same thing happened to me. I'd try and find the blade that broke off. Have you drained the block and checked bilge for missing blade? 215 still sounds too hot. On my impeller the rubber separated from the core- no damage to the blades.

Update: ordered the impeller should be here wednesday. in the mean time, put the old impeller back in...since only missing one tooth and cleaned the trap coming from the impeller going to the trans cooler. It had some grass, but no impeller blade. I put the boat on the fake a lake and it got up to temp and held it. Taking it to the river tonight for a real test. I will let you know how that goes. i guess the grass just clogged the filter before the trans cooler.

I'd pick up a second impeller. Always nice to save the day with a spare!

So follow up after sea trial...boat still ran hot. Put the boat on the fak a lake at the house and ran fine, no temp issue. Go out to the river and runs hot. I pulled both hoses from the impeller. first the intake and water was coming through...I can assume no clog in the line there. Pulled the outlet hose and bumped the baot over and nothing. Not one drop of water. I did order the impeller friday so should be here this week, but I can assume from this test that the impller although only missing on blade is the issue. Maybe it spun the hub?

That's what it sounds like. Try this: instead of removing the impeller only, remove the whole unit. Take off the 2 hoses and undo the 3 allens. The whole unit comes off and then you can spin it using your hand to see if the splined hub is stripped.

here's the thread about removing the impeller unit.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=77&hilit=impeller+housing

Thanks, Ill give that a shot. Impeller comes in Wednesday.

if it got really hot pull your exhaust manifold hoses and inspect the inside. they fail from the inside. had ongoing overheating issues with my old boat only to find bad hoses blocking water flow. looking back I cant believe I didn't sink the boat. its only a couple hose clamps, check them out.

Change the oil. Oil hats been too hot breaks down. Also do filter.

Compression check motor to ensure you didn't damage valves/rings. You're looking for around 12.5bar

Check engine and hoses for obvious heat damage. If in any doubt at all head to the dealer.