Oil change goes side ways

Every engine on my boat came due for an oil change all at the same time.

No problem, I have all the filters and oil in stock and a very nice oil changing set up.

I warmed up all the engines (all 4 - 2 mains, 1 generator, 1 outboard).

I hooked my oil extractor to the generator and started to extract. Nothing! My extractor is labeled so I can't accidentally hook it up backwards. I even checked it for suction before hooking it up. I rechecked it for suction, nothing.

Well, the oil extractor is 20 years old so must be the impeller. I pulled the cover plate off expecting the impeller to be missing its veins. The impeller looked just fine. I know the hoses can't be clogged; all they do is transport filtered oil.

Logic said it had to be the impeller despite its appearance. With out any other possible culprit I headed off to my nearest WasteMoney store for an impeller.

Sure enough, one quick impeller replacement and I was back to oil extraction. 10 gallons and 6 filters later I was done.

Now one side of my brain says buy a spare impeller. Fortunately, the logical side says not necessary as this failure will only occur in port.

tiltrider1 said:

Now one side of my brain says buy a spare impeller. Fortunately, the logical side says not necessary as this failure will only occur in port.

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He he, this gave me a chuckle!

Logic said it had to be the impeller despite its appearance. With out any other possible culprit I headed off to my nearest WasteMoney store for an impeller.

Sure enough, one quick impeller replacement and I was back to oil extraction. 10 gallons and 6 filters later I was done.

Click to expand...

once the old impeller was out, did it return to original shape or hold the um compressed side it was stopped at? If it did then it says an impeller unused for a period of time needs to be changed.
Maybe you should remove it until needed.

SteveK said:

once the old impeller was out, did it return to original shape or hold the um compressed side it was stopped at? If it did then it says an impeller unused for a period of time needs to be changed.
Maybe you should remove it until needed.

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The odd part is it worked for 30 seconds and then stopped working. I fully expected to find split or missing vanes. Some how it lost shape after 30 seconds. The fact that a 20 year old impeller failed is of no surprise, just how it appears to have failed was a bit surprising.

tiltrider1 said:

Now one side of my brain says buy a spare impeller. Fortunately, the logical side says not necessary as this failure will only occur in poport.

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No. You buy the spare now for 2 reasons.

First, it's only a matter of time before the impeller is discontinued or out of stock when you need the next one.

Secondly, there are times when you may decide changing the oil NOW is important. An example would be a failed fuel lift pump seal that has dumped a couple of gallons of diesel into the engine crankcase. This is assuming that you have a spare lift pump onboard.

Ted

I have a Reverso oil changer on board with an impeller. A Reverso on a boat I used to own had a gear pump. The gear pumps are better.

I had problems like you described. I changed the impeller, still no suction. It's not rocket science, right? I called Reverso and got a helpful engineer on then phone. He said it's easy to have the gasket slip off the thin wall pump housing and create an air leak around the gasket. Checked that, and it was the problem.

I would suggest you keep a spare impeller. Mine lasts a few years and then it needs to be replaced.

I liked his "my nearest WasteMoney store".

I have had the reverso oil change pump setup on both of my boats, and I have to say I am incredulous that one of those impellers lasted 20 years when none of mine lasted for a second oil change, and that's a LOT of oil changes every year from 1986 until I wised up in about 2016 when I replaced the pump on my current boat with an impeller pump. Soooooo much better.