Water flow through transom pickups
 

Does anyone know if transom pickups will force water past an inoperable sea water pump through two coolers and into the engine assuming the boat was moving at a good rate of speed, say 65-70 mph.

I was just wondering if the water flow would be sufficent to protect an engine, say maybe 1 or 2 minutes until the operator noticed the rise in water temp, in the event an impeller failed or sea water pump belt broke or came off.

Re: Water flow through transom pickups
 

That depends on a lot of things. Why did the pump fail, were did the parts of the pump go to....... You can get a TON of flow with out the impeller. Lots of drag boats do not run them. In fact some of them will make your water preasure go up to high if they are to deep in the water. You could probably run all day like that. However if a part came off the impeller and clogged your cooler...... also when you come down off plane you will see that temp climb in a REAL hurry.

Jon

Re: Water flow through transom pickups
 

I can tell you from first hand experience that there is enough psi to get water throug the engine! :D I lost a belt and had no spare in downtown chicago and launched from north point!!! cruising back some 30 miles on one engine was NOT gonna happen and i had no one to come pick me up to get the truck and trailer. I yanked the seawater pump appart and pulled out the impeller. I did have the stock engine water pump though and i'm sure that helped. Anyway the only thing you have to watch out for is getting airborn while on plane....as soon as you loose water psi you will trap air in the block and its almost instant that it will over heat. I had to stop a half dozen times when we caught a little bit of air. As soon as it happened i let off the gas and shut the engine down to let it cool down some....start it back up and instantly get back up on plane....the longer you wait the more likely you will over heat. And made it home no problem. :)

Re: Water flow through transom pickups
 

Yes!

Re: Water flow through transom pickups
 

Just to clarify things though......if you have a 100% opperational pump and loose the belt or the pump breaks off and has no contact to be driven off the engine you wont get too much water into the engine since the impeller will block the water. Thats why when i broke a belt i took the impeller out of mine...as long as you dont have alot of restriction you can get enough water psi out of the transome pickups to cool the engine......