1991 OMC 43l with Cobra Drive

"Greetings I have a a 1991 Dor

"Greetings I have a a 1991 Doral with twin 4.3 sterndrives. In servicing for splashdown, I changed the impellers in both drives, starting with port motor. I tested it for 15 20 mintues ran fine. Worked on the starboard side tested it and it worked fine. After I shut down the starboad engine I thought I would check the port side to tbe sure. I put the muffs on started up and it began to overheat. Turned it off and went to look at the outdrive and I noticed that water was peeing out in a steady stream above the water intake screen. I did not remember this before so I looked at the starboard drive and there is a hole there as well but painted over. So I was wondering is this a blowout plug? and did I have to much water coming from the hose and harmed the outdrive? I took the hose off the thermo housing and started it up and nothing was coming from the intake hose. I removed the impeller housing and flushed the line from the thermo housing and it came out clean. So what gives? The impeller turned fine with a screwdriver and when I keyed the engine, the impeller shaft also turned. So did I wreck the drive and blowout a plug? or is the impeller just no good and Ill should replace it again? Thanks for your help"

"Don't see how you could h

"Don't see how you could have wrecked the drive and never heard of a blowout hole? Have you looked at the new impeller yet, does it look damaged? Replace the impeller again, make sure the rubber is seal ok on the housing, put it back together and try it again."

"The impeller looks and turns

"The impeller looks and turns fine, but will be replaced again. Is there a drain hole above the screen on the outdrive? As I have one just above the intake screen on the starboard side of the drive. Is there a way to clean the outdrive water passage from the screen to the impeller?
Thanks for your help"

I'm not aware of any hole

I'm not aware of any hole but then I've never run my drives on muffs so couldn't see it anyway. Outside of forcing water down into the passage when you have the impeller and housing off the only other way would be to remove the drive and split the upper/lower so you can access the water tube that feeds from the lower to the upper.

"Turns out it was a bad impell

"Turns out it was a bad impeller. I took the new one off and flushed the line. It ran clear and unrestricted. then I flushed from the impeller down to the intake screen. That also ran clear and unrestricted. So I tossed the new impeller aside, bought another one and replaced it. It now runs fine. I looked at the impeller I took out and do not see any defects. Sometimes 1 & 1 do not make 2! I called my boat hauler and I amawating splashdown!!"

Glad to hear the new impeller

Glad to hear the new impeller fixed it but puzzled as to what happened with the (previous new) other one especially since it seemed to work fine when you first installed it?