New Impellar. . .

I am just curious to know how often the housing goes bad for the impeller when the impellar goes bad. I talked to the boat shop about a week ago and told them that I thought that my impellar was bad. I said that I didn't want to have to wait to get the parts in once they finally got to my boat if it was the impellar. The shop manager said that he has impellar's for my boat. Anyway, they finally got to my boat yesterday and told me that they would have to wait for a couple days to get the housing for the impellar. I have read a little about the impellar and others have said that it was common for the housing to need to be replaced if the impellar goes bad. Just how common is it though. Am I overestimating how common it is or is the shop I took my boat as idiotic as they seem. There is much more to the story that makes me believe that they are idiots, but thats another thread that I don't want to get into. My boat is an 89 inboard/outboard with an OMC outdrive.

I would guess that they are feeding you a line of BS. If the housing was messed up you would of had major overheating problems on the water.

Unless for your boat they sell it as a package. Then if they do you'll have to buy both the housing and impeller.

You should change your impeller at least every other year. I change mine once a year just to be safe and I keep one in the boat at all time for a spare.

I have a 96 Sanger. Way back when I changed mine for the first time, the shop asked if it had ever been changed before (didn't know because I'm second owner). They suggested pulling the housing because the boat was originally fitted with a plastic housing (or maybe it was a plastic cover....something was plastic) and the shop said they see a lot of original housings crack. When I pulled mine, sure enough it had a small crack. It didn't cause any problems because I got to in time. I took their recommendation and changed the housing (a better one was available), along with the impeller. Subsequent changes have been impeller only.

I guess I must have misread or misinterpreted what I read earlier about the housing. It doesn't surprise me that it is bad, because it did get pretty hot when I ran it (not sure of the actual temperature). I didn't run it for too long though, maybe five minutes. I am just upset that I have to wait a few more days after the run-around they gave me before finally looking at my boat. I think that I will just do everything by myself from here on out. I'm sure that I can figure things out by myself in the time it takes the shops to even start looking at my boat.

"I would guess that they are feeding you a line of BS. If the housing was messed up you would of had major overheating problems on the water."

Not necessarily. On an I/O, the impeller that needs preventative replacement is generally in the lower unit on the outdrive. A minor crack in the housing can still keep water flowing through good enough to keep from any major because of how everything is sandwiched in there. It could still need replacing. Just ask for the original housing when they're done. I'd be leery of any shop servicing an OMC just because competent OMC sterndrive mechanics are a dying breed. If you've found a good OMC shop, that's something special these days.

To address the original question, the kit for the pump housing plus impeller only costs me $5 more than the kit with just the impeller in it for my Mercruiser Alpha One. I replace the housing every time.

If you have a merc drive you need the housing. No reason to replace the impeller without doing the housing. This is the main reason I chose Volvo over merc. Takes me 5 minutes to change my impeller and I can do it on the lake too.