Engine Overheated - Help!!

About a month ago, I was out in my 1996 Four Winns Horizon 190 (19ft, 5.0 L Volvo Penta Cobra SX, 8 cylinder). Smoke started billowing from the engine compartment. I immediately stopped the boat and was towed back to the marina. A friend who was with me told me it was probably the impellor. Once the engine cooled, we checked and the impellor had shredded. The same friend replaced the impeller for me.

I have had the boat out twice since then with no problems. Then, yesterday, I took the boat out and it overheated again after about ten minutes of running. This time I am afraid I have done some major damage. I have no audible overheat alarm and so how I realized it was overheating was when the engine stopped running. Yes, yes, perhaps I should have paid more attention to the temp gauge, but I didn't.

I was again towed back to the marina. It just so happened that the mechanic was there. After the engine cooled, he took off the water pump and checked the impellor. It was fine. Although one of the three screws that bolts the water pump to the engine had been sheared off. He drilled out the "bad" one and replaced. Once he put the water pump back on and started the engine, water was spraying from what I am going to call the exhaust hoses (the large black hoses one either side of the engine that carry the water through the cooling system). They were "crunchy" and he said they needed to be replaced since they were spewing water and thus water was not circulating and cooling properly.

Because I was not at my marina when all of this happened, I went to get my trailer to pull the boat back to my marina. I thought that starting it (once it cooled) and driving it a few hundred yards onto the trailer would be fine. However, once I started it, it sounded very bad and not normal at all. I cut the engine and had a friend with a jet ski tow me to the trailer.

The boat mechanic said that he thinks replacing the exhaust hoses should fix it. Although I am a female and not overly mechanically inclined, it seems to me that the "baked" exhaust hoses were probably the result of whatever the underlying problem is. I agree that they need to be replaced, but it seems like there is probably an additional problem that needs to be addressed. Furthermore, it seems that the engine itself may now have issues caused by driving it when it was overheated to the point that the engine died.

Please help. Any advice you can give will be extremely appreciated. I am female and have learned a long time ago that the more information I have prior to hiring a mechanic, the less likely I am to be taken advantage of!!

Thanks in advance . . .

 

Sounds like when the original impeller disintegrated, some pieces went up into the engine and are now blocking the flow. My guess would be, if you have a thermostat, that's where the blockage is. Those hoses burned up, because the cooling water stopped flowing through them. The water flow will need to be checked after the hoses are replaced. May want to have your mech do a compression test first and see if there are internal problems from the over heating. When all is fixed, have an alarm installed.

 

I had a simlar problem with my boat. I now have a new engine!