Carver 280 overheating

[Ricky mason]

Source of the post Welcome to the forum and Carver.....dont know for sure but that maybe the first Bahamian flag I have noticed, .......anyhow you have got a lot of good advice there from Viper......get a new impeller,lots of lube ( dish soap and some water in this case), if there is a sea strainer between the pump and the thru hull, make sureties full and the top gasket is in place and sealed........after the engine starts, check for water flow at the exhaust if you can....if no flow shut down again....good luck man..

Hey man thanks for the reply , yes there is a sea strainer I believe which when I opened it up was only quarter full, so I checked the hoses and they was dry so I turned my attention to the impeller , removed to find it in pieces again , , the inlet valve (sea cock) has a hose to the sea strainer , out of there to the impeller then pumped into the engine , I believe there’s another hose on a t section before the sea strainer which goes out the back of the boat ?

[Ricky mason]

Ya the rubber isn't as pliable after several years but I would expect it to last longer than 45 minutes after only sitting for three years. It's probably older than that and if you didn't lubricate it when you installed it and it starved for water for a few seconds, that might have contributed to the failure. Always good to get impellers from a source that sells a lot of them or there's no telling how long they've been on their shelf. Between the retailer, distributor, and sitting in the boat for a few years, you can be installing an impeller that's over 5 years old.

. Well I say 3 years but that’s how long I’ve had the boat , it was sat on the sea in Barbados for 18 months atleast before I got her , then on the river Shannon in Ireland very rarely used and now she’s on a fresh water river in the uk ! So 5 years I imagine at a minimum which I suppose anything sat for that amount of time in many different climates isn’t going to be great , I only used it as it was the spare nocking around but I’ve learnt from my mistakes which it what its about I suppose , it’s just issue after issue , only last week it stopped running due to dirty fuel , so I drained the whole fuel system and 300liters of diesel to find sludge in bottem of the tank so managed to clean that out bleed the whole fuel system and get it running again to find it over heat and this happen lol ! She’s a bit of bitch to start at the best of times !

[Viper]

Sounds like you're running into the usual stuff when dealing with a vessel that hasn't been used in years. That's what kills them the fastest unfortunately. Hang in there, eventually, after you get rid of the gremlins from her having sat idle for ages, you'll get to enjoy her and forget the current frustrations. We're all here and eager to help so ask away I'm just glad someone rescued her from an early grave.

On another note, you said something that was kind of curious; you said that the strainer was only a quarter full. That's strange considering they are supposed to be below the water line and as soon as you remove that lid, water should be overflowing out the top. If the pump wasn't pumping properly, the water level in the strainer should still be at the top and overflowing providing the seacock is open. With the lid off and the valve open, how much volume do you get coming out of the strainer? I've seen seacocks from salt water apps go bad and restrict flow so that's a consideration. The caution here is that if that's what's going on and it lets go, it could sink your boat so you want to eliminate that as a possible culprit.

[bud37]

Ricky, you just mentioned something interesting, ..another hose teed off between the sea cock ( thru hull ) and the strainer.....look closely because if so follow it to the back of the boat as you said and see if there is a valve in that line, make sure it is closed if there is one.........it may have been some sort of fresh water flush with a fitting on the transom....just spitballing here, it may not have anything to do with this problem but would be good to find out while were are at it...... got to cross off possibilities ..

[Ricky mason]

Source of the post Sounds like you're running into the usual stuff when dealing with a vessel that hasn't been used in years. That's what kills them the fastest unfortunately. Hang in there, eventually, after you get rid of the gremlins from her having sat idle for ages, you'll get to enjoy her and forget the current frustrations. We're all here and eager to help so ask away I'm just glad someone rescued her from an early grave.

On another note, you said something that was kind of curious; you said that the strainer was only a quarter full. That's strange considering they are supposed to be below the water line and as soon as you remove that lid, water should be overflowing out the top. If the pump wasn't pumping properly, the water level in the strainer should still be at the top and overflowing providing the seacock is open. With the lid off and the valve open, how much volume do you get coming out of the strainer? I've seen seacocks from salt water apps go bad and restrict flow so that's a consideration. The caution here is that if that's what's going on and it lets go, it could sink your boat so you want to eliminate that as a possible culprit.

It did confuse me abit because when I seen that was nearly empty I checked the inlet so removed the hose off of sea cock opened the valve and it gushed through so quickly closed that again , I poured water down the hose that goes onto sea cock to check for a flow and the sea strainer stared filling so water can flow freely from sea cock to strainer , it’s just when I re connected the hose on to the sea cock and opened the valve I left the lid off of sea strainer and no water come through so did not start filling even though I’d checked water flowed through the hose to strainer as I did it by hand and the sea cock gushed when I opened with no hose on ? Mind baffled lol ! And the sea strainer is below the water line but the hose comes up around 2 foot from sea cock loops round to a t section , has a hose facing left which goes to sea strainer and another hose straight through which goes to back of the boat I assume out the back , you can just see it in this picture below bud !

E6C30BD8-F6BD-4769-9527-F4D8E3769B2B.jpeg

[Ricky mason]

Source of the post Sounds like you're running into the usual stuff when dealing with a vessel that hasn't been used in years. That's what kills them the fastest unfortunately. Hang in there, eventually, after you get rid of the gremlins from her having sat idle for ages, you'll get to enjoy her and forget the current frustrations. We're all here and eager to help so ask away I'm just glad someone rescued her from an early grave.

On another note, you said something that was kind of curious; you said that the strainer was only a quarter full. That's strange considering they are supposed to be below the water line and as soon as you remove that lid, water should be overflowing out the top. If the pump wasn't pumping properly, the water level in the strainer should still be at the top and overflowing providing the seacock is open. With the lid off and the valve open, how much volume do you get coming out of the strainer? I've seen seacocks from salt water apps go bad and restrict flow so that's a consideration. The caution here is that if that's what's going on and it lets go, it could sink your boat so you want to eliminate that as a possible culprit.

So green is coming from sea cock which had to travel upwards first , blue is the hose to sea strainer and red is the hose I believe goes out the back of the boat so when the boats running opens the valve ! Thankyou viper

[Viper]

I think that's your problem. The intake hose looping up like that will create an air pocket as it's above the water line. It should all be below the water line so the system is full of water at all times. The other concern is where does the red hose hook up to? Never seen that setup before. Is it feeding another device like a generator? There shouldn't be anything else hooked up to that circuit, no tee unless the tee is a valve used in an emergency to utilize the engine for pumping large amounts of water out of the bilge after a severe impact. Check where/what the other end of the red hose is hooked up. Hopefully you're not sucking air through there.

[Ricky mason]

I don’t see how it could be any other way though due to the sea cock valve being in the bottem of the boat but it stands atleast 8inches from the bottem of the boatvthen the hose slots on to that , then due to the stiffness of the hoses has to kind of loop over as it does , but I know what you are saying as without the hose on the water gushed up through the sea cock but then with the hose on nothing comes through as if it is to high , but then when I hand filled the hose off of sea cock it went straight to the sea strainer so so on the correct route to impeller as if the red hose was closed as the red hose would be straight through the t section I.e a more direct route for the water to travel rather than going left through the blue hose to the strainer , which is what makes me think the red hose is closed when engine is off and only opens when the boat runs and runs straight out the back of the boat , ? Although it’s all technically below the water line outside of the boat I understand what your saying with it coming so high up en route to sea strainer ! Thankyou viper

[bud37]

Remember, all the hoses etc you are talking about are on the suction side of the pump, so when engine runs it will be pulling thru all those hoses back towards the raw water pump. It occurs to me the boat must have worked ok before......dont assume, check that other hose all the way to where ever it goes. Wet dry shop vacs are great for blowing and sucking thru hoses to trace.

[Ricky mason]

I am popping down to the boat in a few hours so I will get pictures of the whole engine bay , hoses and sea cock for you and viper , hopefully we can get a better understanding of everything ! Thanks a lot very much appreciate your help and advice