Yes, but you have the drives fairly deep in the water pushing water up the sea strainer toward the pump. They would not be dry for long. Water does not evaporate out of your SWP. But I still wouldn't start it even briefly without water applied in the direction of the SWP; and definitely not regularly.

Is it really worth it considering the hassle a blown impeller can cause when you're out on the water?

If your luck is anything like mine, In 5 seconds you will toast an impeller. At an idle a 5 gal. bucket will let you run for about 3-5 mins. The solar panel kit from Harbor Freight ($129) will keep the batteries up. With all that said, you can eliminate your dead batteries by just using it more.

There is enough water in the engine, hoses, sea strainer, block, etc to run an engine for 10 seconds. Not something I'd do on a weekly basis but it's doable. We do it often to burp entrapped water during winterization before running anti freeze thru.

Why? Really why! I do bump my starter to test my battery an have done so sence the first bravo came out in 1988. I did it to test more than a battery back then. Replaced the water pump every year. Live in Louisiana an ran to Florida a few times a year.

Get some good AGM batteries and you wont ever have to worry. A few winters ago I forgot to plug the shore power in up at our storage and the batteries were perfect and fired right up 6 months later.

So what happens when you pull a boat out? All of the water suddenly drains out of the blocks, all hoses, pumps, strainers?
What happens when people like me winterize and drain the blocks or rebuild engines , meaning no water anywhere and then the engines get stated and the impeller run dry till water makes it to them?
What happens when a boat leaves the water at 5000+ rpm? Am I supposed to shut the engines off till I re-enter? :whistle:

The impeller doesn`t explode that fast everyone just calm down :D
With water in my strainers never been a problem for a quick start.

Raukua , You don`t have battery gauges? I used to have a digital battery monitor in my other boat. That`ll tell ya if they`ll start or not .


Lots of hangtime ( daughters pony tail going straight up we were coming down for a while) still plenty of water coming out the exhaust and side discharge. :riding:

Already got 'em! Two new ones a couple of months ago when the boat arrived here.

I've got to check on the Mercathode wiring, it may be pulling current all the time. It may sound stupid but do all 496/Bravos from around 2007 have a Mercathode? I haven't noticed. (Not that I've been looking) Didn't have many options from the factory so it might not have one......

RR

Mines a 496 so closed cooling, but the water pump/impeller would be dry.

Only got a volt gauge, God knows how accurate it is, usually shows 11.5 volts and just barely started last time out. Shows 13 plus when running so I assume everything's charging.

Nice pics BTW but I've only got a little Donzi....... :)

RR

Mercathode is not an option. Every Merc engine I've had has had it. If you have good batteries that are being properly charged and you turn your battery switch off every time you are done boating there is no reason the boat should not fire even with infrequent use. My standard 24 series Interstate XDM's will fire my 496 off in the spring after sitting 6 months in the cold with no charger on them. I cringe whenever I hear a dry start at the ramp. That;s just me, though. Plenty do it.