454XL Impeller Replacement

Austintatious said:

How in the world do you change the raw water impeller when you can't get behind it or to the side of it? I can't get to the outside of this starboard engine and the bulkhead is right in front of it. I can barely get a hand down there and touch the pulley on the seawater pump. Is it possible to unbolt the pump itself and get it out? I think there are only two bolts holding the pump to a bracket on the engine but I don't see how I'm going to be able to get to them. I tried to upload a picture but it's not working. I'd like to think that in the 25 years others have owned this boat before me the impeller has been changed but I don't see how I can get to it.

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diver_dave said:

Sherwood E35? Then yes, two bolts from the bottom and two hoses and its out of there. No way to do a good job on SB pump with it still in there. I've done the port side in place, and even then its best to put the pump on the bench. There are other wear items besides the impeller. Look at the "major service kit" contents.

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Thanks. Here's a pic of what I'm working with. The light grey brace at the top of the picture is the access hatch frame, there are only a few inches from there forward to the bulkhead with the fuel tank on the other side. The light grey brace on the right is also part of the access hatch frame with about 18" of floor from there to the starboard side of the salon. There's barely enough room to get one arm between the front of the engine and the bulkhead with absolutely no access from the side. I'm thinking of cutting out the rest of the floor, re-configuring the bracing and making additional access hatches to improve access from the starboard side. I can't figure out how in the world anyone could have changed the starboard impeller since 1992 on this 35' Mainship Convertible:

Austintatious said:

Thanks. Here's a pic of what I'm working with. The light grey brace at the top of the picture is the access hatch frame, there are only a few inches from there forward to the bulkhead with the fuel tank on the other side. The light grey brace on the right is also part of the access hatch frame with about 18" of floor from there to the starboard side of the salon. There's barely enough room to get one arm between the front of the engine and the bulkhead with absolutely no access from the side. I'm thinking of cutting out the rest of the floor, re-configuring the bracing and making additional access hatches to improve access from the starboard side. I can't figure out how in the world anyone could have changed the starboard impeller since 1992 on this 35' Mainship Convertible:

View attachment 16619

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diver_dave said:

That is tough looking. I'm going to imagine that tensioning the RW belt is going to be even less fun than removal of the pump. If this is a single V belt, like mine, you have to keep outward pressure on the RW pump with loose bolts while you align the pully and then tighten the two pump bolts.
You might consider yanking the oil cooler out of the way. It's easily doable, but a bit messy. One of the big hoses has to come off anyway to let the RW pump free. So, its the other large, easy to get to water hose, the 4 oil hoses and two bolts and that assy is out of the way.

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Austintatious said:

Wow. I'll have to look again but I'm pretty sure the RW pump has it's own belt off a secondary pulley on the crank and there is another belt that drives the coolant pump and alternator.

This has pretty much convinced me to remove the rest of the flooring and modify it all into a bigger hatch so I can at least have some side access to that engine. Maybe I'll even turn that entire salon floor space into one huge hatch with a couple of electric hatch lifts

Amazing that anyone has been able to replace that impeller in the past.

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