LQ-9 Raw Water Pump hose failure...

[MinnX-10]

Hey there... out on the lake today and heading to our "spot" at a high speed, felt something strange... temp started to rise and some smoke out of the back of the boat... Stopped the engine immediately and got the "emergency" stuff ready.

Turns out the output hose of the raw water pump between the pump and the exchange had blown off... I reattached (needed a new clamp... gotta love the spares) but quite a bit of the Sierra coolant had been burnt off..(???? had the dealer on the phone and the tank was low according to them) So we putted to a dock and let things cool down a bit.

When I started the engine back up, everything was fine with engine temps in the 160 - 170 range. Headed back to the ramp (wanted to get the boat out and checked over after that one!) and 1/2 way back there were some strange rattleing noises and the engine started to sputter (best description I can think of!). Shut the engine down and a friendly larson towed us back to the ramp.

Any thouhts on what I should look for when checking everything out? Any advice would be apreciated!

BTW.. this is the 2nd time that hose has blown out????? Up until the blow out, everything was running fine? :confused:

[6ballsisall]

Gall darn, all the negative talk about the LQ9 certainly doesn't inspire confidence about it!

Sorry to hear of your troubles

[MinnX-10]

Thanks for the kind thoughts... I have been very pleased, but you are right... there is quite a bit of negative talk around this...

But when it works!!! it is great! (This is my first engine based down day since it got it in 2003, so I guess I shouldn't be too bummed! But my nephews were with me and had finally got the courage up to try skiing and we weren't able to get them up!??? :( )

[Leroy]

Is this with the closed cooling system or does it pull from the lake?


Sorry to hear about your troubles.

[MinnX-10]

It has a closed cooling system, but it pulls raw water from the lake to a heat exchanger. So the engine is cooled, but the coolant is cooled by raw lake water... it is on the raw water pump that the failure occured, not on the engine coolant circulation

[MinnX-10]

Update... decided to play it safe and drop it off at the dealer... I will post an update when I hear anything, for those of you with LQ-9's or thinking about putting one in a new purchase

[TrevorA]

I have an 2002 Prostar with a LTR motor. Last summer I was driving across the lake and had a similar rattle putz, calput noise followed by the engine alarm and shutdown. It ended up being a bad gear in the oil pump. On the distributer.
The engine had metal shavings all over in the oil so the dealer got a replacement block from MC.

[Leroy]

Thanks MinnX-10. I still that is technically the best cooling system. Wish my boat had it!

[MinnX-10]

here is the final story... from the dealer...

The engine is fine! (good deal!) The raw water pump, impeller... everything is still in working order.

HOWEVER... something happened between the time when the hose failed and I noticed the temp gauge sky rocketing and here is where I would like some input. The muffler system (fiberglass on the lq-9, not sure if that is across teh board?) got too hot and as a result a weak area blew out... ???

This sounds "viable" but any input would be appreciated! Thanks!