Solas impeller self destructs @25mph. Good thing we had spare impeller, and cordless grinder.

[dan144k]

We were riding in after some sunrise wakeboarding and surfing, cruising athe about 25mph for breakfast restaurant. Heard aweful, turned off engines. Checked clean out plugs, they ok. Felt clean outs for debris, and something was wrong. Boated in the test of the way on one engine.

Pulled the boat and found a snapped impeller blade. Had no warning or performance change prior to breakage.

Impeller stuck on shaft, snapped the teeth of both holding tools. Cut it off with a cordless grinder and 4 cutting wheels.

Did not have spare port impeller so we installed a starboard impeller and boat runs good enough.

Broke at 9 and back boating at 2pm.

Edit. Impellers 3 years old and we're repitched 2 years ago, so Zero warranty available.

Also only thing I have changed recently is the lucky 13 cones, and doubt that would cause the problem.

 

[njmr2fan]

Weird! How long have you had them on?

 

[Julian]

Well that totally sucks....I will be interested to see if Solas replaces it.....

 

[bronze_10]

Wow...

 

[Speedling]

Holy smokes!
I would not be to happy. Did you suck up some screwdrivers or something at wot?
I have seen dings but never seen one tore up like that!

 

[swatski]

@dan144k Ouch!!! I couldn't look for too long, had to turn my head away from the screen.
What the...

Glad you could fix it that fast!

They had a run of some bad solas on greenhulk seadoos trecently, but nothing like this...
http://www.greenhulk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=250828

--

 

[ISLANDRACING]

vx110 impeller modified to fit on the driveshaft and used on a 240, Solas probably isnt going to do anything.

 

[4x15mph]

Wow - were you able to reuse the driveshaft after all of that cutting?

 

[dan144k]

Drives shaft was fine. Touched it a few times with grinder but did not damage the threads. With the broken blade I had a good starting point for grinding. But the inner rear, inside the impeller is where the threads are. So you need to keep cutting away till you get to that point. Then your need to start cutting at angles and dragging the the grinder perpendicular for the final cuts. The entire time avoiding the raised hub on the aluminum vane. That is why posted the pictures. So people could reference there own impeller cutting if needed

 

[buckbuck]

ummm...thanks...but I really don't have plans to do any impeller cutting.
I can't even imagine what caused that to fracture. Was the impeller housing damaged?

 

[swatski]

ummm...thanks...but I really don't have plans to do any impeller cutting.
I can't even imagine what caused that to fracture. Was the impeller housing damaged?

There have been reports over the years of solas breaking blades. No impact. Material fault of some kind.

 

[swatski]

Drives shaft was fine. Touched it a few times with grinder but did not damage the threads. With the broken blade I had a good starting point for grinding. But the inner rear, inside the impeller is where the threads are. So you need to keep cutting away till you get to that point. Then your need to start cutting at angles and dragging the the grinder perpendicular for the final cuts. The entire time avoiding the raised hub on the aluminum vane. That is why posted the pictures. So people could reference there own impeller cutting if needed

I think it will make a nice piece for a curios cabinet display. You are quite an artist with that grinder!

 

[buckbuck]

@swatski
we have differing impressions of artistry.

 

[swatski]

@swatski
we have differing impressions of artistry.

That is until his pieces start fetching extraordinary prices at Sotheby's auctions!

 

[itsdgm]

WOW. Looks like a royal PITA. Glad that you're back up and running.

 

[bronze_10]

I was debating on changing mine this off season... is there a problem with solas?

 

[dan144k]

For anyone curious the starboard yamaha impeller with lucky cone installed on the port side, worked great for everything except surfing, had too much cavitation with 3000lbs of ballast. Top speed dropped from 43 to 42 but port now running 100rpms higher.

@buckbuck
Housing was OK, lightly damaged but very usable. I will probably replace the housing at the same time I buy an Impeller. Just to make sure it does not damage new impeller, and also working on max performance.

Plan is to start with yamaha port impeller,cheapest, want to check performance, and will keep as back up. Because probably gonna buy another solas, but would like to buy stock unit and install without remitting. Maybe concorde maybe dynafly. Will be winter research project.

My boat is unique because I am the only person,to my knowledge, running and offset steering nozzles (downward a few Degrees). There is a thread which explains it. I think I loose 3-5mph with this nozzle change, but for how we use our boat I am OK with that. I still have the stock Strait nozzles, so I can install and test at any point if I want.

Also I have the lucky 13 cones, which I still need to adjust, but they are effecting and changing my impeller pitches, currently at full throttle I am not reaching max rpm, 43mph, 7000 port, 7100 starboard. Should be at 7800 rpm,

@bronze_10
I personally still trust in the solas product, things just happen. If this was a common problem I would worry, but never heard or seen pictures of this happening before.

 

[swatski]

For anyone curious the starboard yamaha impeller with lucky cone installed on the port side, worked great for everything except surfing, had too much cavitation with 3000lbs of ballast. Top speed dropped from 43 to 42 but port now running 100rpms higher.

@buckbuck
Housing was OK, lightly damaged but very usable. I will probably replace the housing at the same time I buy an Impeller. Just to make sure it does not damage new impeller, and also working on max performance.

Plan is to start with yamaha port impeller,cheapest, want to check performance, and will keep as back up. Because probably gonna buy another solas, but would like to buy stock unit and install without remitting. Maybe concorde maybe dynafly. Will be winter research project.

My boat is unique because I am the only person,to my knowledge, running and offset steering nozzles (downward a few Degrees). There is a thread which explains it. I think I loose 3-5mph with this nozzle change, but for how we use our boat I am OK with that. I still have the stock Strait nozzles, so I can install and test at any point if I want.

Also I have the lucky 13 cones, which I still need to adjust, but they are effecting and changing my impeller pitches, currently at full throttle I am not reaching max rpm, 43mph, 7000 port, 7100 starboard. Should be at 7800 rpm,

@bronze_10
I personally still trust in the solas product, things just happen. If this was a common problem I would worry, but never heard or seen pictures of this happening before.

I wonder if you are running with all 3 spacers on the cone, taking a couple or all off should get you back at least some of the RPM back.
I'm curious about OEM impellers, I would not be surprised if you end up getting the best results with those. Especially as far as cavitation with heavy load is concerned.

--

 

[dan144k]

@swatski
Originally before I went to the solas, the port stock impeller had frequent cavitation for me, but with the lucky cone that should be eliminated.

Also the impeller I cut up, at one point I tried to cut it in half, before I realized the threads were encased in the inner hub.

 

[swatski]

@swatski
Originally before I went to the solas, the port stock impeller had frequent cavitation for me, but with the lucky cone that should be eliminated.

Also the impeller I cut up, at one point I tried to cut it in half, before I realized the threads were encased in the inner hub.

Solas are super hard, I know from trying to bend those. Can not image cutting through like you did! I think you are a superman.

I'm kind of dying to hear how is the L13 cone working with brand new stock OEM impellers in your boat. You and @ar240owner seem to be on the way to test the Solas vs OEM in the 2010+ 240s. The MR-1 versions use different OEM impeller blade design, seems more similar to Solas Concords. There is less data on solas vs 2010+ OEM comparison.

My own experience with a single 1.8 has been that while I liked Solas very much for their overall smoothness and a touch of top end increase, new OEMs worked by far the best for me, as far as pump loading and bottom end grip. Any cavitation with OEMs could also be corrected using L13, which was not quite the case with Solas. I have always felt strongly about the superiority of the newer model (1.8) OEM impellers for heavy duty pulling based on my experimentation and the assumption that a single pump is intrinsically more prone to cavitation under heavy load (as compared to twins).