My one experience with a fried impeller, is to make sure all the bits from
that impeller are removed from the engine. A friend had an overheating
problem, and the mechanic did just that...replace the impeller. He got it to
the lake, and it still overheated...just not as quickly. Rather than haul it
back to the shop, he asked me to take a look. I pulled the new impeller
(damaging it in the process), and removed the hoses from the housing. Low
and behold the "rest" of the old impeller were clogging up the ports. I
removed all the bits, and we took them and the impeller I tore, to the shop.
They gave us a new one, a coupon for a free 100 hour service, and a very
red-faced apology.

--Mike

" JimH" jimhUNDERSCOREosudad@yahooDOTcom wrote in message
. ..
Cut out of work at noon and scrambled to the boat to hook up with friends
of ours, meeting them at the mouth of the Vermilion River with boat our
boats. We arrived first and once safely past the breakwall idled while
waiting for them. The trip was perhaps 15 minutes tops.

I started to smell something burning and saw puffs of smoke coming out of
the engine compartment. I shut down the engine and grabbed a fire
extinguisher while my wife threw out the anchor, then opened the engine
compartment to see smoke coming off the engine and to hear hissing and
popping. Gave it a shot from the ABC dry chemical fire extinguisher
thinking there may be a fire. Saw the temperature gauge pegged at 250F.

Radioed our friends who towed us back to our marina. The marina mechanic
checked to see if there was any foaming or burnt smell with the engine oil
(none) or oil in the bilge (none). Sigh, maybe a good sign, or at least I
hope so.

We ended up leaving the boat with our mechanic and spent the day on our
friends boat. After 3 or so hours I got a call from the marina, telling
me they checked out the engine (after letting it cool) and judge it to be
OK, although the impeller needs replacing. They said I could safely move
the boat to my slip if I wanted to until repairs are made.

We got back to the marina later today and I took the boat from the gas
dock to our slip, with the temperature rising to 220F during that short
trip from the gas dock to our slip (5 minutes). The boat also ran very
rough during that short trip

So.......besides replacing the impellor any other suggestions on what I
should ask the marina to do? What is causing the rough engine, especially
after having a tune up only 4 engine hours ago? Is there some internal
damage I may have done?

Single 1997 Volvo Penta 4.3L, Chevy 190 HP.

TIA for your answers.

BTW: My vacation started this afternoon (one week of it) and this was
the last thing I expected to have to deal with.