Changing Impeller

[Warren Kaplan]

I have a CD27 with a Yanmar YSM8 raw water cooled engine. Running just fine as of the end of last year. Engine was rebuilt before I bought her in Sept '99. I don't do much motoring. I just use the engine to get out of my marina and then back in, about 10 minutes each way. I'll also take her for a 45 minute run periodically because Larry Berlin, the Yanmar diesel guru says that diesels need to be worked and should be run for an extended period of time at a minimum of once a month. So, if I add it all up I probably put no more than 15 hours on the engine in all of the year 2000. I left the impeller in place over the winter and I winterized the engine with marine antifreeze. At last, to the questions! Do you think that this impeller should be changed at the beginning of this season or should it be alright? Obviously either way I'll have to see whats coming out of the exhaust port when we first start her up. Secondly, I've read somewhere that antifreeze can effect the rubber the impeller is made out of and that really the impeller should be removed for the winter. I don't know if that's true or not and I couldn't figure out how to pump all that antifreeze thru the engine without the impeller. Does antifreeze cause trouble with the impeller? Do any of you just routinely replace the impeller at the start of the new season no matter how many hours it had on it last season? Thanks for your input.
Warren Kaplan
S/V Sine Qua Non
CD27 (1980)



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[Bob Miller]

Warren - I take the impellor out every fall so it won't "set" in one shape. I do this after I pump the propylene glycol thru the unit. I don't use ethylene glycol, which is poisonous. Propylene glycol is an additive to cream soda and root beer, so maybe it won't hurt the blades, but you never know. I suggest that you replace the one in there now and keep it as a spare. And Larry is right...Yanmars need to be run. Have fun...Bob M.



millerfam5050@worldnet.att.net

[David Brownlee]

We used the YSM8 on our former boat, a CD27, about the same way. Conscience led us to replace the impeller every 3 years. The removed impellers looked good enough to keep as spares.

(Painted the bottom today; launching next week!)

David Brownlee
CD 31 #1 WINDRUSH
Havre de Grace





dbrownle@sas.upenn.edu