[rusty]

Hey Gang!Now that summer's here and hopefully everyone is boating "trouble free",some maintainence questions come to mind.Specifically water pump impellers and the importance of periodic replacement,but how about the exaust shutters.My 98 Z210 has 240 hours on it and is in great shape and I want to keep it that way(my wife says I'm a bit anal about it,- it's maintainence is cheaper than hers).Are these shutters something I should check on?After reading about vapor lock,that's not something I want to deal with.Are there any other items to check that are not commonly talked about?Thanks for any input.
By the way,would this only apply to thru hull exhaust?

[Paul F]

Just made an appointment to replace the impeller, better safe than sorry.


Several years ago, we were down at the Lake of the Ozarks and my bilge pump starting kicking on. I checked the bellows and I could not tell where the water was coming in.

I took it to the shop and apparently one of the exhaust flaps had fallen down to the V in the exhaust pipe in front of the drive. The vibration of the engine caused the the pin on the flap to rub a pin hole in the pipe just below the water line.

It just took a weld to fix, but we had to pull the engine to get to the pipe. I was told that Mercruisers had a problem with that. Luckily, no water backed into the engine.