i drained my block now water wont circulate!!?!?!

anyone have any ideas? i drained the block a couple weeks ago thinking i was done for the year.. long story short i tried to take it back out since then and i burned up an impeller, which im sure was due to the lack of water circulation. i undone every hose and checked for blockage and i cannot get water to circulate thru the engine. any ideas?? ive spent about 8 hours trying to get the sorted out.

When you drained the block did you remove the impeller? If so, did you put on a new gasket? Any water in the bilge after running the engine? Is the problem no suction or water draining somewhere? Have you tried it with a new impeller yet? Maybe the old one was on the way out. Did you recover any missing parts of the old impeller? A missing impeller blade can get stuck in the block and stop water flowing. Sorry - lots of random thoughts.

yeah im pretty sure i recovered all the impeller pieces. when i fill the cooling system it drains out of my drip-less packing system.

Have you tried running it with a new impeller on a hose or "fake a lake". If so, does any water come out of the exhaust at idle?

Strange there is that much water coming out of the dripless packing.

yes ive tried running exactly as you mentioned. no water coming from either the packing or the exhaust. the water only exits out the dripless packing when i fill the hoses directly.

Alan, if you disconnect the ourlet side of the impeller pump, or remove a drain on that line if you have one you should see lots of water spraying out from it Your impeller is working at least some then. Or, start with a block drain and see if water is coming out of it while you run the engine.
If water is coming out of the impeller well but not the block you may have a blockage at a heat exchanger. Just fallow the line until you have not water pressure.
Don't run the engine if you have no water in it for any length of time/

Getting air somewhere. Your pump is losing its prime. Check the gasket on your strainer. Check all hose clamps. Last, pull your raw water pump. Put your hand up tight against one end and your mouth on the other. Blow into the pump you will know if it is air tight or if a little air is escaping. May need a rebuild or just get a new raw water pump. It is amazing how small of an amount of air will cause the system to lose prime. Good luck!

thanks art i will start removing hose by hose to find the break down.

justin i have checked the strainer gasket it seemed fine. good idea about check the hose clamps ill do that when i start the line by line break down. also by "raw water pump" are you referring to the circulating pump or the pump with the rubber impeller?

ok pulled the raw water pump(with rubber impeller inside) pretty major air leak. gotta wait till auto parts store opens to get some gasket maker.

When I've bought impellers they came with new gaskets.

this one came with a rubber o ring type thing. that didnt fit so i didnt use it, just figured the old gasket would be fine. obviously not though

Glad you found the problem.

well even after i fixed the air leak in the raw water pump i still couldnt get water to circulate. so i started dumping water in the hose just after the strainer and blew on it until a vacuum was created. look there was just an air pocket somewhere preventing the system from pushing water through. i also installed a water hose intake so i didnt have to mess with the fake a lake. so next time i drain the block i can just close the water inlet valve/scoop and use the water pressure from the hose to push any air thru. what a mess but its fixed

Nice!

had a similar problem with my GT40. What caused it was the heater matrix being drained also, the pump was therefore trying to draw air as the exit of the heater is on the inlet to the raw water pump.. I've now got a gate valve on the heater matrix so I can close it off to ensure the pump can only draw water.

helps to know what our working on