Raw water pump on 496, how long?
 

Do they last?
mine is an 03 with 235 hours on it. it seemed fine last year, never had an issue. sat all winter, i fired the boat up friday and no water. the guy at the place that stored the boat opend up a fitting someplace and "bleed" out the antifreeze and boom, it started pumping. it was pumping good, then about 3 minits into running it stopped pumping again. i shut it down.

the guy said he thinks its the flush ears dumping out the low water pick up, but i have never had an issue with them.

he then filled a bucket up put it under the outdrive, fired it up and boom, she was pumping fine for 5 min, no issues.
any thoughts? should i just change it out, was it a fluke.

im not cheep and have no issue changing anything out that needs it, however im a firm believer of it it aint broke, dont fix it.

let me know your thoughts please.

thanks allot

with that many hours...change the impeller. Better safe than sorry.

Pump is made of brass. It's fine.

Your system was still pressurized from using the air-pressure system during winterizing. That will keep the SWP from pumping water. It's in the manual.

The impeller needs replaced. Sucking water up from the muffs absolutely is the worst way to run a boat on a hose. It's horrible on impellers. You really need a host fitting to a "T" that dumps water in front of the SWP. You do not need a ball valve or check valve. The impeller will take a "set" over the winter and the fins will basically not be as efficient as a new impeller. Replace it; especially with those hours.

thanks for the advise. i think im going to add a flush kit now as well.
it never had it befor as it was in the lake full time, it got flushed once a year, so it wasnt worth it. now its kept salt water and i pull it every 2-3 weeks, clean the bottom, flush it, was it, clean the bilge, silicone spray everything etc etc etc. so i think im going to order one of the compleat kits.
any advise wich one to buy?

i'll install it this week when i do the impeller. i'll just get it done, and do it all the first time

I changed mine at 300 hours as the water pressure guage showed it was getting due with lower idle pressure. Chances are your housing maybe scored and you'll need to take care of that as a impeller alone in a scored housing is not going to pump at 100% if at all. A Water Pressure guage should also be in your to do list if your not equipped with one now.

Mercury Marine actually makes one that's like $125. Simple to install. Don Carter at Offshore Performance in Ft Myers stocks them. His number is 239-489-0884.

great info. thanks for the info.
im going to look him up.

i did fire the boat again yesterday to get the oil warm for an oil change. she fired right up and started pumping hard pretty quick, and ran for 10 min with no issues.
pretty sure im going to do it anyway

i found this one and it would match my boat well.
good one for what i need?
i know my race car is full of autometer gauges, just want to be sure its good for my aplication?
http://www.cpperformance.com/detail.aspx?ID=9497

also, any easy install tips? power, ground and lighting is easy. how and where does it install? inline on the inlet hose, a fitting into the drain near the pump, after the pump?
thanks again, im just stepping into the High performance boating here so go easy on me. lol my last boat was a 20' stingray and i didnt do anything to it, i bought it new and had it for 3 years and put like 55 hrs on it. the boat befor was an 18' welcraft CC with a 120 outboard. so im new to this end of boating.
thanks

Put a T on the power steering cooler on the back of the motor where the factory water pressure sensor is and mount it there. Thats the way that we set mine up and it has been working great....

I changed my impeller every season, only takes a couple hours. Maybe overkill but it's cheap insurance.