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dak

New member
"hi i am a newbie and have pur

"hi i am a newbie and have purchased my 1st boat. it is a 1987 imperial w/454 mercruiser. recently i took the boat and anchored at the beach to which i pulled out thru a sandbank, which came out of nowhere. anyways i noticed i kicked up a lot of sand during take off, and about 5 min. in to driving we started hereing what sounded like electrical sparks, it was really loud and obnoxious sounding. after shutting down and checking to make sure it wasnt electrical, we started back up to here and see where it was coming from. it sounded like it was coming from the front of the motor by the waterpump. checked fluids everything was fine, my brother thought that i maybe a little low on powersteering, but there was no indication while driving that steering was the problem. we decided to take her back in, and on our way back the sound stopped. we were going at very low speed about10, so i decided maybe i would drive around before i headed in, thinking maybe i kicked sand in to my cooling system, or whatever else sand may have entered, and maybe that was my problem. as i drove around for another 10min. i decided that the problem must be gone as the sound had disapeared, so i gave her more throttle, and as she was picking up speed the sound came back, but this time it was not that loud at all, and seemed to be correcting itself as the sound kept leaving and coming back.
i am very new to boating and am hoping that someone here could tell me what they would think. the sound is just like sand is shaking around in a container. i am assuming that it is sand. has anyone had this problem? the motor is running like a champ aside from this noise.
if anyone can help i would really apreciate your time to answer me.

Thank You very much in advance to anyone..."
 
sounds like you may have sucke

sounds like you may have sucked up a bunch of sand mud etc. your engine is not a closed cool system like a car or truck it brings in water to cool then sends it out. so impeller maybe? also there may be some of whatever you went through clogged around the drive the steering is controlled by a hydrallic piston thing on each side maybe those got a dose of sand. as it cleans out the sound gets less and less not a wrench monkey but hope thats a help or start. oh hey just thought i sucked up a trot line one time that was not marked into an outboard made a terrible sound maybe you got more than sand and mudd
 
"thanks 1790, i believe it is

"thanks 1790, i believe it is sand that sucked into my waterpump and impeller. so i am going to replace some parts as i wouldnt want sand to go into the gearcase. it runs and sounds great except for the periodic sound. do you think the sand is something that will eventually shoot out by itself or would it be in my best intrest to replace the part to be safe...
thanks so much for your time i appreciate it more than you know..."
 
pull your block drains and run

pull your block drains and run on flusher. try to get as much as possible out of the block before it becomes a cooling issue.
 
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