rchevelle71

iTrader: (1)

Well,

It looks like y'all had fun while on the sandbar, at least we had food, beer, and a kickin stereo for the tow home, and we didnt burn much fuel

The only pic I got was of the towboat

Xray50

I not going anywhere near sand anymore! Thats the second time I've sucked sand. That nosecone pickup is like a scoop!

DrFeelgood

Yeah, I think I'll stay in lake Boca from now on... the run up to peanut is a lot of fun, but the sand sucks (literally!)

handfulz28

Well crap guys, now I feel bad for not being out there to help.

Rick, I know you are home days...I'm working from home for a while so let me know whenever you need a hand.

Andrew, what I've done first is take the raw water pump outlet hose off, then the hose that feeds the t-stat housing. Blast the hose through there which will backflush the oil cooler. If you see chunks of impeller, then you know for sure you need to dig in. Probably nothing more than sand/pebbles, might be fine. But this has worked for me when I toasted my last 3 impellers.

You can also remove the big hose connecting t-stat to circ pump. Remove the bottom first and that will drain most of the block. Blast the garden hose into the tstat housing and you might get some stuff out of there. FWIW, if you find the impeller is toast, "chances" are the block and t-stat should be ok.

And for those looking, the Boat Owners Warehouse on Sample should have 4 units of Sierra 18-3150 (rebuild kit including housing, $66) by this afternoon. I stopped by on Friday and asked them to order a bunch. Got dibs on at least one for me.

27Fountain

Sorry I'm posting so late, but I've been outside all day changing my raw impeller and flushing out my lines! I brought half of peanut island back with us to Tavares, FL.

We had a nice run back, loved looking at all the houses on the intercoastal and the weather was great!

We even spotted the big blue roof that was our marker for the channel, so we didn't pass the ramp. Then the troubble began. We beached ourselves 200 feet from the ramp. We could see the truck and trailer from our cozy sandbar.

We warned a bowrider that was entering the channel to the ramp that it was low and he was going to get stuck. We told him he would have to wait until high tide...he said he didn't know what high tide was...he learned.

So, Josh and I got out of the boat and began pulling it towards the ramp. No luck. Boat was stuck and we would have needed at least 10 men to even move it.

We banished the women to the cuddy...they were taking pictures and found the whole thing humorous. We needed the weight to be at the front, so they got to stay down throughout the whole ordeal.

After pulling, pusing and a whole lot of screaming, another boat came in and pulled the bowrider free. He made it safely back to the ramp. They then came over to rescue us. They pulled us from the sandbar, but we then sucked up sand and killed the impeller.

So our rescue boat then decided to tow us back to the ramp. We made it on the trailer without backing it off the ramp, but the boat that rescued us couldn't manage to get his boat on the trailer without being on the fender. So we helped him get squared away and then we headed back to Tavares.

We made it home about 11 pm, and didn't have any troubles on the ride.

I changed out the impeller and she seems to be running fine now. We keep spare impellers in the garage since we frequently pick up sand as a souvenir.

On the bright side, we had a lot of fun and will never forget our weekend!!!!

Thanks guys for having us, we'll come down and run Lake Boca next time!

Barry

Jupiter Sunsation

You guys are killing the rep for Peanut Island. I have been there a hundred times and never had the bad luck you guys had! Next time skip the sandbar and just pull up on the beach on the west side, water is deep at the transom when the nose is in the sand.

Glad everyone made it home.................

DrFeelgood

Ok, so I started tearing apart the cooling system tonight.

The impeller looks perfect -- no torn vanes, no sand in it at all.

The thermostat housing looks fine from the underside of it -- how do I get the thermostat out of there to inspect the top of it?

No sand in the intake manifold, or any of the hoses going to or from the sea pump. The top screen of the oil cooler is clear other than a piece of grass or 2.

If I flush with the hose into the exhaust manifold feed hoses, or the water pump upper hose, or the oil cooler, I get flow through the system.

I opened up the stopcocks on either side of the block (which is rusty, btw), and the water doesn't pour out like I would expect -- it just drips... drip.. drip... That's the only thing I've found so far that seems strange to me, but maybe it's normal??

SO, next step is what? Take out the freeze plugs in the block? Pull the intake?

-Andrew

rchevelle71

iTrader: (1)

Barry,

Thanks for making the trip, and Sorry you got bit also

Well, we were 4 for 4 yesterday, I havent figured out my mess yet, got home and cleaned the boat, and put her away, then today I woke up sick this morning, so it will wait a few days. I am glad you had fun up to that point, maybe andrew is right, next time we'll raft up in Lake Boca, but that can be shallow also. Do ya do the offshore races at all?? We will be up your way in St. Cloud in April, come on by the pits and have a drink or 3 on me, and we'll laugh about the whole ordeal.

Rick

rchevelle71

iTrader: (1)

Actually, I am working Days now, which puts a bug in my repairing schedule, but lets me play on sundays, instead of going into work at 11 Sunday night. Thanks for the help offer again, but I dont really even know where to start just yet

Rick

rchevelle71

iTrader: (1)

You are correct, I have never had a problem on the sandbar either, but yes, the west side beach is deep at the transom, used to do that all the time before they remodeled the island, and it is like 8 feet deep at the transom, and you can push back as the tide goes down, only problem is some people dont like beaching, but I have never even had a sandscrape from beaching in that area, all sugar sand.