On Sat, 21 Aug 2004 22:28:43 GMT, "Tony Abbott"
wrote:
On the installation of a fresh pair of marine engines how do you prime the
raw water pumps. Each engine has a Sherwood (G7 I believe) with 1 1/4"
inlet/outlet. The boat is currently out of the water as we are finishing a
long restoration process. I have a garden hose with the water intake
adapter hooked to the intake under the boat (yes the correction piece for
raw water pickup). The path the water goes is intake from under the boat,
through a raw water filter, through a transmission oil cooler then to the
pump. There is about 5' worth of hose and the filter and cooler prior to
reaching the pump.

================================================== =

All of the Sherwood pumps that I'm familiar with are positive
displacement, rubber impeller type pumps. As long as the boat is
fully immersed in water they should self prime with no difficulty.
This would also be true for a pressure feed from a garden hose. If
you are concerned about starting dry, give each impeller a shot of
silicone spray prior to start up.

The pumps you need to worry about are the centrifugal type pumps
usually found on air conditioning and refrigeration systems. They
will self prime only if mounted below the waterline, and only if all
of the intake hose is below the waterline.