15 HP won't pump water

New here and don't know anything about Hondas. Have this 15hp Honda my father borrowed years ago from a cousin to use to save gas, 4 stroke. He's too old to go out fishing anymore and I want to give the motor back but the impeller went and he took it to some hack marina that put an impeller in it but when I got it home and put it in a barrel it still wasn't pumping water. Runs great though. Took it back for another week at the hack and the guy finally said he can't do any more with it. Over 300 bucks into repair and the guy couldn't fix it. What I'm wondering is the guy said bits of the impeller are stuck in the engine blocking water and how common is this? Should I just take it to a real Honda repair marina?

It is not unusual for bits of impeller to go up into the engine. Generally, they get lodged in the thermostat area. Sometimes, they may go further. Although, I have not seen it a lot.

If the impeller was not all in one piece, the mechanic should have removed the thermostat and backflushed the system from the thermostat area with the lower unit removed.

If you are not mechanically inclined, it would be wise to take it to a Honda dealer who has worked on these small motors for some time.

It normally should not be more than an hour and a half labor plus an impeller kit, if the blockage is that simple. It could be more if the motor overheated a lot. They may have to pull the power head and change the seal on the top of the water tube, which is under the power head, along with a few other gaskets under there. The motor could have overheated to the extent that the rubber gasket (seal) at the top of the water tube coming up from the impeller, could have melted over and it could now be blocking the flow.

I have seen all the above as well as nests from critters, if it have been sitting for some time. I have even found a dead snake up in the passage

I say all this just to emphasize that it would be wise to take it to someone with experience with this motor. Make sure they have been a Honda dealer for at least ten years, then they will have had experience with the two different styles of Honda 15HP.

Good Luck!

I don't think the motor ever severly overheated. The last time we ran it, it was still spitting water when we noticed it was not pumping well and we shut it off. It starts right up and runs well. This guy at this fly by night marina that has since closed up was not much of a mechanic anyway. He gave me a little zip lock bag of pieces of impeller he found in the pump housing or something and said usually when you start a motor up the pieces blow out. I will take it to a real Honda marina this weekend and cross my fingers. Thanks.

If it were me, I would pull the thermostat and the run the engine, (in water) even w/stat cover off and see what comes out. Don't run this way for a long time. Maybe try a little back flushing from the pee hole hose w/a water hose connected or held very tightly to the hose to force water thru the system.

You could just have some debris in the hose to your pee hole (technical term..). You could even just blow back through the hose with some compressed air.

It would not hurt to pull the thermostat too like gss036 said. Although, the water comes up from the water pump and one of the first legs of the flow go toward the pee tube before it gets to the thermostat. So if there is a blockage it would probably be before the water gets to the thermostat.

Flushing is always good.

Without even running the engine, you could follow the pee tube to where it goes into the back of the head (just to the bottom rear). It is about 1/4 inch in diameter and you can probably just pull it off the nipple. You can blow through the hose and make sure it is clear. Then take a paperclip (special tool) and ream out the nipple in case there is something there.

I just got this back from a REAL Honda marina. The original guy from the fly by night marina put the wrong impellar in it. Thats all that was wrong! It's a good thing the guy went out of business because I would probably go back there and get in a lot of trouble after paying the guy 300 bucks and 2 trips to screw it up even more. Lesson learned, only take it to a qualified brand name place. The guy claimed he worked on Evinrudes but could fix anything. The Honda marina had it fixed in a couple days and 100 bucks. I learned my lesson.

When I first posted here, someone was nice and posted a site that sold Honda parts, and it showed exploded views of the engine areas. Mine is an '06 and it really was quite simple to switch an impeller out. Ws nice too that Honda used a 10mm bolt head size thru-out that area. Bruce