Do these impellers look bad?

[Hike]

My port Impeller is looking pretty jagged. Do these both look like it's time for a replacement?
I'm still able to hit 47mph with two people and a 1/4 tank of gas. When the boat is loaded though she struggles to hit 43mph. My intake tunnels also look out of alignment. I have around 400 hrs and boat in brackish water. I figure its time to change the bearings and maybe housings if I'm going for new impellers. I was thinking of replacing with SOLAS impellers from Impros, then send my old ones as a spare.

PORT:


STARBOARD:


Intake Tunnel: kinda hard to see, but the transition from the grate to the tunnel is offset.

 

[Ronnie]

Those impellers look bad, especially the one in the first pic. I did most of what you you plan to do (except replacing the bearings and housings). It’s a good plan. I’ve had to use my refurbished oem impellers twice now. Once when of of my impros pitched solas impellers threw a blade and again when I had to send the replacement back to be repitched.

I can’t tell what boat you have but if it’s a 230 with 160 hp motors you should be hitting 51 / 52mph at sea level.

 

[Hike]

Thanks @Ronnie, I have an SX230HO at sea level and would love to hit even 50mph!. That sucks about your Solas impeller, they're not cheap!

When I talked to impros they said to switch to a stainless wear ring. My dealer that I'll have do the install however, said I'm better off with the plastic OEM ones. He said that if there's a blade failure it could be catastrophic with a stainless liner as it could seize the engine and that the oem ones would give before that happened. Do you guys agree with that? Thanks for the advice!

 

[Ronnie]

Impros was sold recently to one of the owners of green hulk I think. He repitched my replacement impeller at no cost to me but shipping to him and it worked perfectly. So Jerry is probably right in this instance and your wear rings need to be replaced. If it were me, I would replace the impellers first and while doing so replace the grease in each cone. You can inspect the bearings in the pumps as the impellers and grease are replaced. If the bearing are ok don’t bother to replace them yet, wait until the off season if you still want to as preventive maintenance.

as for the wear rings, newer (4 stroke) Yamaha jet boats and waverunners are not like some of the older jet boats and PWCs which have sacrificial plastic wear rings that fit into the impeller housing. Instead the impeller housing and wearing are one piece that is strong / highly resistant to wear IMHO. They are also expensive (it’s been a while since I looked but plastic wearrings for my Seadoo PWCs used to cost about $50,a Yamaha metal housing is over $250). Moreover the impeller housing is glued into the hull which makes them difficult to remove. I would only buy and use an after market wearing ring if the Surfaces of the oem wearing/impeller housing have been worn Down enough to cause performance degradations even after the impellers have been replaced or refurbished. I’d go with the metal ones so that there would be less of a chance they would be damaged during normal use which may reduce performance and cause me to replace them. It’s important to reseal the pump surfaces to the hull as well, you want smooth transitions not ridges on the areas before the front of the impellers or you may experience cavitation and the related lag or lack of thrust if the water going to through the pump is disrupted before it gets to t

note 50+ mph top speeds are only possible if the engines And pumps are running properly. You also cannot have too much weight in the boat. If you have a full tank, lots of gear and more than 4 adults Onboard you won’t be able to hit 50 mph. Otherwise in addition to the top speed the boat should accelerate quickly. the engines max out at 10,200 rpm regardless of how much weight is in the boat.

semi related, when I said one of my Solas impellers threw a blade I mean that one of the three blades just tore up and nearly off starting at its leading edge, I think it was damaged when my wife ran over a piece of wood but that’s another story. My point is that the oem impellers seem to be tougher than the Solas ss. Just something else for you to consider as you tackle this project.

 

[Hike]

Thanks for the input. I have a pair of custom pitched SOLAS impellers from Impros on the way! I was thinking of SBT housings with the Delrin wear rings, but my dealership has two OEM stainless housings in stock for the same price ($200ea.) Should I just stay with OEM? I boat in a river with plenty of shallows, mud/sand but my OEM ones have lasted me 400 hours so far

 

[Ronnie]

I would wait on buying and installing wear rings. Your boat may run great without them after you install the new impellers. If I still needed wear rings after the new impellers were installed I would probably go with the plastic/Delrin models because that is what I was used to in my older seadoo pwcs. Besides something has to give in the event binding occurs and id rather replace the wear ring instead of the impeller and / or shaft.

FYI I’m still surprised at the $200 cost per. The last time I bought one was about 10 or 12 years ago for a two stroke seadoo pwc and it cost me less than $50.

 

[Hike]

The plastic wear ring liner inserts are about $40. but the housing which includes the Delrin liner is $209 at SBT.com.
Glenn at Impros suggests going with the stainless housing, either SOLAS or OEM. He says the steel rings are more exact and doesn't like how the plastic ones can spin around.

 

[Ronnie]

Got it. Go with the expert’s advise. On the old seadoo plastic wear rings there were two holes drilled into the side that screws went through to keep the ring from spinning and / or sliding, I never used them but never had a problem because of such non use.