Wet exhaust isn’t wet

[peaman]

A couple days ago I had a fuel pump failure which has been resolved. I replaced the pump and am again able to start the engine. But I seem to have another problem now.

In the course of troubleshooting the fuel problem, I cranked the engine quite a bit in an unsuccessful effort to purge air. I have since recalled that cranking excessively without ignition can lead to a flooded muffler and engine. Having since started the engine, there is no indication that the engine has been harmed in any way, but when I run it, I’m not getting water ejected in the exhaust.

Until I saw this issue, I had not done anything, other than cranking the engine, to affect the raw water circuit. Since it has come up, I have checked the raw water pump (okay), and the seacock and strainer (okay). After running the engine for a minute or so, the raw water pump feels cool, and exhaust components (elbow, hoses, muffler) feel only slightly warm.

I don’t know how long is too long to run the engine while waiting for water to spit from the exhaust. What’s the best course here? What to check? Again, the engine now starts fine and runs normally, but the exhaust is dry. Do I simply need to run it longer? How long?

 

[Prairie Schooner]

We had the rubber of the impeller separate from the metal hub. When I took the plate off, it looked fine. It was only when I took the impeller off that I discovered what was wrong. I don't know if this will be of any help.

 

[peaman]

I recommend @Prairie Schooner for the Lifesaver Award for October. It appears that my impeller had slipped from its sleeve at some point. But as an engineer, I am very sceptical of the incidence of multiple unrelated failures, so I’m curious as to how and when the impeller might have failed. As I noted, earlier, the pump cover felt cool to touch. Later, I removed the cover to make sure the impeller had not lost vanes, saw that it had not, and reinstalled the cover. After that, it did not feel cool again until I replaced the impeller and smoothed the cover using 400 grit wet sandpaper. When I check it earlier, I had noted that the cover had some rough spots, but I figured I could address that later, and I reinstalled the cover with no other steps. With the new impeller, I lubed everything with Dawn dish soap.

Bottom line, things appear in order again, mechanically while my salon is decorated with cushions, tools and supplies everywhere. It’s great to have EY.o as a resource.