You couldn't pay me enough to be a marine mechanic.

I just finished changing the water pump on my Yamaha 85hp outboard. The job consisted of removing 10 bolts, replacing a few parts and reassembling. I've been dreading this job because I knew the PO hadn't changed the pump in 10 years. I knew it was going to be a PITA to get apart.

It took 3 hours to remove 10 bolts and the lower water pump housing. Two broken bolts had to be extracted and the lower water pump housing came out in 8 pieces. I hate working on outboards almost as much as I hate paying someone else to do it.

The only good news is it went right back together and works perfectly.

A word of advice for all you boat owners out there. Change the water pump impeller annually. Not because the pump is worn out, but because otherwise you might not be able to get it apart without burning all the paint off the foot and center housing. Extracting SS bolts out of cast aluminum SUCKS and requires a lot of heat. Buy a large can of anti-seize and use it liberally. Don't forget to anti-seize the un-threaded shank of all the bolts. Flush your damn engines if they are used in salt water.

I was once a marine mechanic. Everything you said is true, especially the part about not being able to pay me enough.

And...outboards are easy. Even changing the spark plugs on twin inboards can be an all day job.

Oh yeah, I remember those days of working on my dad's salt water boats. One had a two piece engine cover, salt spray would drip down in the gap and the 3rd spark plug back on the center heads (pair of 302 Fords) was just below it. I did not know a spark plug could rust/seize to a head that fast. We had to PULL THE DAMN HEADS to get those two plugs out the first time!

I did my outboard impeller this spring for the first time in 5 years...one bolt was very very close to being stuck in and breaking off, so it took 15 minutes to get out just rocking it back and forth 1mm at a time to get it moving. . If I had waited another year, it would have been much much worse.

I also have a 20' Sea Ray with a 5.7 (SBC) MerCruiser. Plug changes on it were a MAJOR PITA. So were oil changes. You couldn't get to the filter on it without arms that bent in 8 places. I finally relocated the filter to the transom. The water pump on the other hand was a breeze. All fasteners were SS studs with locking nuts. It always came right apart and went right back together. I could service the pump in under an hour.

If being a Marine mechanic is tough, I bet being an Air Force mechanic is easy

it is not only the environment that kills it for being a marine mechanic.. but the confines below decks.

Some V8s have updraft carbs so that any flooding/sinking does not make it's way into the engine.

Then you are dealing with two distinct cooling systems. A raw water cooling loop and a freshwater loop with an intercooler between them.. unless you have keel cooling, then you just have one loop and a radiator on the underside of the boat.

You couldn't pay me to own a boat. Whole lot cheaper to rent once a year.

A friend of mine sells Nautique ski boats. He doesn't understand why I run screaming when he pulls onto my lot with one of his wake boats...

Some outboards have completely inadequate anode surface area. I have dealt with Mercruiser I/Os from the 80s that have spent their whole lives in salt water and never had an issue with corrosion, and I've also dealt with 5-year-old fresh-water Honda outboards that had to be cut off the transom because the mount clamp threads had seized in the casting.

You could actually pay me enough to be a marine mechanic. Its not as bad as it seems in most cases but the misconception that it is means the mechanics get paid more.

Kinda like when you take a BMW to a mechanic and they try to charge you triple for an oil change. Misinformed consumers just assume they're over a barrel and pay it.

BOAT - Break Out Another Thousand - or - "A hole in the water that you pour money into."

poopshovel wrote: You couldn't pay me to own a boat. Whole lot cheaper to rent once a year.

You don't fish enough.

mtn wrote:

poopshovel wrote: You couldn't pay me to own a boat. Whole lot cheaper to rent once a year.

You don't fish enough.

Fishing is boring.

My idea of the lake is someone with a big pontoon boat that has enough motor to ski behind, lots of food and booze onboard, go find a nice cove and enjoy the sun, brewski's and friends.

But like OP, I wouldn't do it either. I remember having to perform the procedures at MerCruiser for the manuals I wrote. Changing the exhaust manifolds on SBC Inboard was a huge pain.

I paid part of my way through engineering school working on peoples speedboats and offshore race craft. I found it quite interesting. My first day on the job I managed to drill a hole through the bottom of someones new boat. The second day on the job (having recovered from the first) was to figure how to hang two 300 hp Envinrude outboards on the back of a 26" open deck booze cruiser. And one had to be convinced to spin backwards. I

People who own boats are a breed unto themselves and divided into the NO MONEY and WAY TOO MUCH MONEY categories with no real gradient between the two. Sane people don't own boats.

And the bit about changing the impeller on the water pump? No truer words have been spoken. Not really sure why the marine industry considers the water pump impeller to be a consumable? Its not like you can walk home when the damn thing breaks down.

I am always amazed when I pull the hood off an old (freshwater) outboard motor and everything (usually) looks clean, visible, bright, and pristine. It’s like some time capsule.

Hmmm, I just changed the water pump, pulled the power head, replaced a bunch of gaskets and took the carbs off on a 1988 Mercury 45 HP. The boat belonged to someone who lived on a saltwater canal.

Everything came apart like butter except 1.5 nuts holding the powerhead on. Blowtorch and vice grips got it off pretty easy.

Overall a good experience, except the overheat alarm is still going off....

like curtis said, people think engine work in marine applications is somehow totally different than in a car, its not. the biggest difference is really just that you need to be able to figure out how to service the engine by sticking your hand in the glove box.

z31maniac wrote:

mtn wrote:

poopshovel wrote: You couldn't pay me to own a boat. Whole lot cheaper to rent once a year.

You don't fish enough.

Fishing is boring. My idea of the lake is someone with a big pontoon boat that has enough motor to ski behind, lots of food and booze onboard, go find a nice cove and enjoy the sun, brewski's and friends. But like OP, I wouldn't do it either. I remember having to perform the procedures at MerCruiser for the manuals I wrote. Changing the exhaust manifolds on SBC Inboard was a huge pain.

is this enough motor? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLRwkrBZzsA

I'm not listening and will continue to believe that all I would do is work on factory Mercury turbine powered racing outboards all day long. http://www.texs.com/magazine/tsg_13.htm

Fast boats are like going on an airplane crash just for fun. Only you don't get a seat-belt.

NOHOME wrote: And the bit about changing the impeller on the water pump? No truer words have been spoken. Not really sure why the marine industry considers the water pump impeller to be a consumable? Its not like you can walk home when the damn thing breaks down.

ever seen an impeller on a boat? Usually it is rubber, This is incase something gets sucked up into the raw water intake. I do agree that they should be a yearly maintance thing as they are pretty cheap

About those raw water impellers, back to my dad's boats for a minute: he'd been around the block so he would change the impellers yearly. He'd also chuck a couple in the boat so he'd have spares if something happened offshore. The MerCruiser outdrives on his first Wellcraft had these 4 bolt covers on top of the 'foot', pull 4 bolts, pop the cover off and the impeller was looking at you. He actually changed a couple out in the Gulf Stream.

So Pop decided he wanted MOAR POWAH, sold that Nova (it had two Chevy II 4 bangers) and bought the twin 302 Ford powered one. It had just been service from stem to stern by someone he knew including the impellers so he bought a couple of spares and stuffed them in his box.

Third or fourth trip to the Gulf Stream, the temp on one engine got higher than he liked so he hove to, raised the outdrives and went back to swap the impeller. No 4 bolt cover. Could NOT find it no matter how hard he looked.

He eased it back that afternoon running mostly on 1 engine, he'd fire up the hot one, run it for 5 minutes or so then shut down before it could overheat, made it back 3 hours late.

Turns out MerCruiser had changed the outdrive design, now it was necessary to remove the ENTIRE LOWER HALF of the outdrive to get to the damn impeller.

outdrives are evil. They are the worst parts of both inboards and outboards put together. The only thing worse IMHO is the "saildrive"

We used to store customers' outdrives for the winter because they are also targets for theft.