Consider the water line of the boat. Would the pump be at the waterline or
maybe below the line when the boat is in the water? If it is at or near the
waterline then the 5' of hose length is not a problem. The line would fill
with water and remain full of water. If this was not the case you would need
to be concerned about loosing prime every time you shut down the engine. To
initially prime the pump fill the impeller cavity with water pump grease.
This will lubricate the impeller as well as keep it cool as it pulls the air
out of the inlet hose. I would also fill the filter and maybe back fill the
inlet hose. REMEMBER IF THE HOSE/PUMP ARE BELOW THE WATERLINE BE PRPARED FOR
THE GUSH OF WATER WHEN YOU REMOVE IT FROM THE PUMP. You may be able to bleed
the air from the hose by just loosening the hose clamps.



John

"Tony Abbott" wrote in message
r.com...
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.

Thanks in advance for the priming answers/suggestions...