Impeller locked up and shredding ring

[65marquis]

Left the 165 in the Atlantic salt water for a few weeks. Engine wouldn’t crank. Did some investigating...... pictures attached. What causes this? It this a common problem?

 

[msavold]

Um.... salt water?
(Most of us in salt water take it out and religiously flush everything after every use. The most I've ever heard of anyone leaving in salt water is a week... Sorry.)

 

[agannole93]

If no lift to keep it on, most I've heard on here say a week at most before pulling to flush and rinse. Not sure I'd expect the above but I suppose it can happen.

 

[65marquis]

I get that. However I do see some left in the water, I agree, it is not the best practice and we have been looking for a dock for this one but have been having a very difficult time finding a suitable dock and with all that’s going on right now we cant seem to get anyone to answer the phone and do anything, but the my real question is exactally what is happening to the ring or impeller to make them lock together? Corrosion behind the ring? Has the impeller moved back too close to the ring? Obviously something has shifted, moved, changed in some way since the engine was shutdown a few weeks ago. Also this is practically a brand new boat, only 3 of 4 hours of runtime on the boat.

 

[mrcleanr6]

If that is a brand new boat and your jet pump looks like that after a few weeks sitting in the water then you have some serious issues my friend. What do the zincs on the boat look like? Are they completely dissolved? Yes we all like to pull our boats and flush them BUT the jet pumps are aluminum and impellers and shafts are stainless just like on an outboard or outdrive. In typical conditions the jet pumps will not corrode in salt water any faster than on any other boat if you have proper anodes attached. There are rare instances where there can be stray current in the water at marinas from other boats or the electrical systems on the dock which can actually dissolve your metal components. May years ago when i was at mercury/mercruiser school in the corrosion class they showed us an instance where a barge was brought into the marina, it hooked up to the shore power and was dumping stray current into the surrounding water. The outdrives on the surrounding boats almost completely dissolved away in a matter of a week or two and damn near sunk.