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[Spawn Sack]

Ran into a bit of a situation today. Dealt with it the best I could. Everything turned out alright but should it happen again I want to be as prepared/knowledgeable as possible. Hoping for some advice here.

So this morning myself and two buddies launched at the Sumas Canal. Anchored first by that train bridge you go under. Several other boats there. Caught a few chum on lures and after an hour or so decided to venture father towards the mouth. There is one spot a couple hundred meters or so from the mouth that always seems to be shallow. Clearly I didn't choose the optimal line as my water intake clearly sucked up some muck or whatever. Suddenly I when I gave it some throttle you could tell the motor was not pushing the boat at all, just RPM. I looked back and saw no water coming out the pee hole. S**t!! Turned motor off and dropped the anchor.

I wasn't panicking but I knew this may not end well if I can't get this sorted out. I officially do not know what you are "supposed" to do in this situation but I'll describe what I did. I tiled the outboard as far forward as it would go and tried to reach over the stern and feel around the foot. I could just get my hand over the grate and it didn't feel like it was plugged with mud. Figured well, not al lot else I can do right now. I decided to re-submerge the jet and hope whatever is clogging the flow of water loosens up.

Fished for 30min or so and decided, okay, I'm going to start it back up. Plan was if no water out the pee hole after a few seconds shut it off, try and row close enough to shore to hop out, beach the boat, and deal with it out of the boat. I do have the proper size wrench on board to remove the bolts that hold the foot on so I can access the impellor if need be...I'm not a TOTAL knob!  

Started it up and whew...water coming out of the pee hole. Turned it off and we all smoked a cigar We fished a few spots in the
Fraser and later coming through this same low spot I got up on plane a bit an just blasted through there. Pretty gut wrenching (for me, novice jet boater) as there are a few dead heads etc and had to crank a few quick turns. I much prefer to putt putt through sketchy water

When I got home I flushed the motor just in case any residual crap was still in there. Then I was thinking...I wonder if I was in a similar situation again, if I could possibly flush the crap out using the flushing attachment? Would this work? I was thinking get a few feet of garden hose with a male end that will screw into my flushing attachment. Connect hose, and on the open end of the hose attach some sort of pump? Manual? Electric?

Would this even work? Or is the primary objective just to clear out the grate on the foot and then all is good? Hoping to learn something from this experience so when it happens again I can say "I know exactly what to do!"

[ShaunO]

It sounds like your impeller got plugged with mud.  A lot of jet boat operators have wash down pumps installed with a 10' length of hose and garden hose nozzle.  In a situation where your impeller gets plugged, you'll have to jump out of the boat and blast the shmooo out of the impeller.  Your flushing attachment only clears the internal cooling passages of the engine, it won't clear a fouled impeller.  And, you will love having a washdown pump built into the boat, but it might not be an easy install.

[Spawn Sack]

Thanks ShaunO. That makes sense what you said. The impellor was likely clogged with muck thus stopping the flow of water from coming out of the pee hole. More specifically, the internal cooling passages themselves were no plugged.

So is flushing a "plugged" motor on the water from the flushing attachment under the bonnet always pointless? Is it possible the internal cooling passages could get bunged up and could benefit from such a flush?

At this point I am not entertaining the idea of installing a washdown pump. Maybe down the road. It's only a 16ft boat so space is somewhat limited.

Maybe something like this? Hook up to the battery and you have a spray nozzle. I imagine you could have another hose ready to attach with a male end garden hose attachment in the event you wanted to try and also flush from the attachment under the bonnet.

http://www.whalepumps.com/marine/product.aspx?Category_ID=10036&Product_ID=10043&FriendlyID=Portable-Pump-kit

Actually this one looks even better!

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/rule-industries--charge-n-flow-portable-pump-kit--11015385

[coyote spooner]

I have a 14' Jon boat and a Yami 50/35 jet.

There is a couple of times I have sucked up sand/mud and it stopped the tell tale from flowing...and i had to limp it back to the launch.  My motor goes into limp mode, due to over-heating.

What I have found works on my motor is using compressed air, at the fitting where the tell tale comes out.  It seems to blow the debris back though the cooling system and out through the water pump impeller.  Problem solved.

I carry a refillable air horn.  It usually comes with a hand pump ,to recharge, through the Schrader valve on the bottom.  So I carry an air chuck, for filling tires.  This allows me to use the air in the horn to shoot it up the tell tale.  I believe there's 75-100 psi in the can and a small shot of air is all it need.  Hold the air chuck up against the tell tail(airline fitting on chuck) and press Schrader valve on can to get the air from horn.  This way I use a piece of safety equipment I already have on the boat for two uses.

On a side note.....being able to get the shoe off is important.  Just in case you suck junk into shoe.  I shim my impeller and liner to .015 to maximize pump pressure/output.  Factory recommends .030 I believe.  I have had my impeller seize, because of tiny rocks jammed between liner and impeller.  Couldn't restart it till I took shoe apart....guy at Cascade warned me this could happen and did.   Only once though.....but could ruin your day.  7/16 or 10mm wrench is all that's needed.

[fletcher]

First thing to do...................don't sweat it!  I always keep an eye on if my motor is pissing well or not.  Sometimes you will pick up stuff either just running a river or you end up getting into shallow water and actually sucking stuff up.  If it's not peeing immediately turn it off.  I've had VERY good luck just sticking my mouth over the exit hole and blowing back into it,  almost 100% of the time this is all that is needed,  I've also taken a coat hanger and stuffed it up there a short ways.  Also if you've got rpm's but no power you've either got enough stuff covering the grill on the foot OR you've got a few rocks stuck in the grill or where it exists the pump. The smallest amount of material on the grill or exit will make a big difference on the power side of things. I couldn't tell you how many times I've had these issues come up on the river and it's always a quick and easy fix.  Biggest thing is ALWAYS pay attention that your motor is pissing properly...........................otherwise it's just a matter of time before it goes bang!

[Spawn Sack]

Thanks a lot guys. Appreciate those tips!

Definitely learned some stuff so far and have some questions and comments:

As for ShaunO's comments: I like the idea of having some sort of pressurized hose. I've been looking at some online. They seem pretty handy you just clip onto your battery terminals, throw the pump in the water, and you have a pressure hose!!

As for coyote spooner's comments: interesting idea with the compressed air into the tell tale. So what I am hearing/learning here is your foot/impellor can become clogged, and/or your tell tale!! I'm guessing no amount of spraying water up into the foot will clear out a clogged tell tale (?) Sounds like you need to deal with the tell take at the hole its self (?)

As for fletcher's comments: I put a couple wire hangers in the boat for situations like this, but more for poking around the foot area. For a potentially clogged pee hole I cut around 2 feet of weedeater cord. It slides in the hole nicely. I could get it in there about 18 inches without resistance.

So question for ya'll:

Is there any point in having something rigged up on your boat so you can flush the motor from the garden hose flushing attachment under the bonnet? To me this sounds like a good idea. I realize this will do SFA if your impellor/grate/foot is plugged up. But what if that are is NOT obstructed and a little piece of kelp of something is obstructing the tell tale? Seems to me that with pressurized water coming in from the hose attachment it could push that crap out.

No? I'm not trying to say I know what I'm talking about because I don't. Perhaps you could make the counter argument that if the water pump is not capable of dislodging something plugging the tell tale, then running pressurized water through the hose attachment won't do it either. In which case you are going to have to clear the pee hole manually with a piece of wire, compressed air, or whatever.

[coyote spooner]

In my case, the main jet impeller doesn't get clogged, but the water pump impeller and tube that feed the power head with cool water.

I have taken apart and replaced some of the main gaskets on my motor.  Including the head gasket and exhaust cover gasket.  There was sand in the coolant passages.  I think if you suck up a lot of sand,  that is pumping lots of sand though the jet pump,  and it'll make its way through the entire motor.  The pressure put out by the water pump impeller isn't always enough to clean it.  Therefore the need for pressurized air or water, to clear it.  So ideally never let your motor suck up anything.  This usually happens while coming or going from the beach(on river with current) or putting on the trailer . It'll extend the life of your shoe liner and water pump impeller.  It's a jet and all but.....a scored liner means less speed and load carrying capability.  A fresh liner and sharp and shimmed impeller is night and day. 

Another issue I've had with a outboard jet is plant debris and wood chips being sucked against the intake grate.  Usually I just shut off the motor and tilt it up.  Then drop down and fire it up again.  Sometimes this happens at a very bad time.   Like fast current.....a loss of thrust is a big problem.  So good to have this routine down. 

[Spawn Sack]

Thanks excellent tips. Honestly all the motor talk about jet impellor vs. water pump impellor is a bit above my head. However I do understand most of what is being discussed

When we first got our boat a couple months ago each time we took it out I would drive it on/off the trailer with the motor. Now I just tie a rope to the bow and push it off and pull it on when ready to go. This might not work with a bigger boat but ours is just a 16 foot (Harbercraft Falcon). The main reason I do this is it's just a lot easier! Esp trying to load the boat on the trailer with a bit of current (Island 22). And everyone knows jets do not steer so hot at slow speed. Another benefit I see of this is fewer starts in mucky water. The last few times I've launched  (Sumas Canal) I've pushed off shore, amnd started in the deeper water. I imagine over the long run this will prolong the life of my impellor.

coyote spooner, good tip on clearing the intake grate if you are in a situation where you need to clear it quickly. I'll remember that.

I also sent you a PM about impellor shimming. Let me know if you don't get it.

The only thing I'm still unsure of is if there is any benefit to flushing the motor on the water from the garden hose attachment? Could this potentially help clear a clogged tube that feeds the power head, or whatever?

On a somewhat related note every time I get back from the river I hook the hose up and flush it for a few min with the engine running. Overkill? I dunno it makes me feel like I'm taking good care of my motor. And of course I grease the jet bearing after every trip with the hand pump grease gun.

[Easywater]

When we first got our boat a couple months ago each time we took it out I would drive it on/off the trailer with the motor.

Driving the boat onto the trailer with the jet contributes to damage to the launch.
Ft Langley launch has a huge hole dug out at the bottom that is a bugger at low tide.

[Spawn Sack]

Never really though of buggering up the lauch, but makes sense. My typical unload routine is tie a rope to the cleat on the bow, once trailer is deep enough push boat off and pull ashore with rope. Once ready to go I'm the last one in the boat, push off, paddle out a bit deeper if necessary, then fire the motor up once in deeper water. Obviously if in a spot with fast water I'm going to make sure the motor starts BEFORE I push off and not worry about sucking up a bit of sand/gravel in the shallow water. Same thing with loading, I cruise up, kill the motor, tilt the jet, then coast up on shore. I give the boat a shove out and pull it one the trailer with the rope, then click the strap on and crank it up. Easy.

In lakes with a steep launch I have been driving it on and off the trailer as I'm not worried about sucking up crap.

I've added some wire (cut coat hangers) and a few feet of weedeater line to my boat tool kit. I figure the wire could be useful for a number of things including dislodging gunk in the foot/impellor area. The weedearter line fits nicely in the tell tale (pee out) hole and I figure as a last resort if I just can't get it to pee out is try feeding that line in there.

For kicks I fed it into the hole in my driveway. It slid in no prob about 18 inches then you could feel it rounding a corner or something as there was resistance but it was still moving. I decided not to force it any farther. Not sure if this would actually fix a plug on the river but if all esle was failing at least I have the option.

I think I would try blowing into the hole with mouth presure first, if no luck then with compressed air, and if STILL no luck try and feed the weedeater line in. This is assuming, of course , that the lower end of the engine is not obstructed and the obstruction lies somewhere between where water is sucked in to the cooling passage and where is comes out the pee hole.

Also, sorry I'm still not sure if my idea with the on board flush using the garden hose attachment would be benificial under certain circumstances? Or is it totally pointless? I described how I would rig this of in a previous comment on this discussion.

Would really appreciate it if someone who knows about this stuff can tell me if this would work or not. I'll copy what I wrote below:

"Is there any point in having something rigged up on your boat so you can flush the motor from the garden hose flushing attachment under the bonnet? To me this sounds like a good idea. I realize this will do SFA if your impellor/grate/foot is plugged up. But what if that area is NOT obstructed, and a little piece of kelp of something is obstructing the tell tale? Seems to me that with pressurized water coming in from the hose attachment it could push that crap out (?)

No? I'm not trying to say I know what I'm talking about because I don't. Perhaps you could make the counter argument that if the water pump is not capable of dislodging something plugging the tell tale, then running pressurized water through the hose attachment won't do it either. In which case you are going to have to clear the pee hole manually with a piece of wire, compressed air, or whatever."

[bigblockfox]

my problem isn't with mud but sand. sand gets ingested into the jet and clogs the hole where the water shoots out. after to long the motor gets hot from water not being able to get out and i loose power. took the cover off and cleaned it so we will see how it goes. mine is a 50hp yamaha outboard. old turd so don't want to spend much. in between boat.