www.iFourWinns.com

My first attempt at a maiden voyage for my Horizon 230 went a little bumpy. It was plenty warm, but the rain only gave us about an hour window to take it out for a spin. I’m glad I did because it has problems. The picture below was from my very brief test drive just before it overheated. I think I’ve got a problem with either the impeller or thermostat. I quickly turned it off and nursed it back to the ramp. They are going to check it out in the next week or two. The boat ran fine during the test drive in November when I bought it and the dealer said they had replaced the impeller (and I believe the water pump) within the last year and it had barely been run. They are telling me that it can be worse on the impeller if the boat has not been run. Our test drive in November might have been the only time the boat was in the water last year. Hopefully, my first repair bill won’t be too painful.

On the positive side, the family finally got to see the boat and are excited about boating, we got a little cleaning done and we are getting the “kinks” worked out before the real boating season begins.

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John
2001 Four Winns Horizon 230
VP 5.7 GSi / DP
2007 Ford Expedition EL

Looks great on the water. Sorry to hear about your overheating issue. Hope they can take care of it without too much of a cost to you.

Bummer, but at least you got out. Before you go spending too much money, you might check the simple things-like an obstruction. If you are at all handy, some of the guys on this site could probably walk you through pulling your water pump, verifying circulation of raw water, and changing the impeller if you are interested in saving some money and also getting it back sooner than later if your repair place is busy already.

Good luck, hopefully it is minor.

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

I'm very glad your family are still excited about boating; wish I could say the same about my 17 year old daughter!

When you say it overheated, was it the temperature gauge/ automatic reduced engine speed that alerted you, or the manifolds/ risers overheating (+ burning rubber smoke/ smell)? Manifold /riser overheating is caused by insufficient water flow from the raw water pump (= cheapish repair if it's the impelllor) or blocked channels in the manifolds/ risers ( more expensive, but unusual if it's both sets at the same time). Engine block/ heads/ inlet manifold overheating ( as indicated by the temp gauge) can again be caused by the raw water pump, or the thermostat; they tend to get stuck, usually in the closed position. Unlikely to be the recirculation pump, otherwise it would be noisy ( seized, with screeching belts) or leaking profusely.

If the engine has closed cooling, unlikely I guess as your photo suggests fresh water use, then a blockage in the heat exchanger is a possibility.

I hope it works out cheap!

Graham

Whatever it is, you came out of the deal with a gorgeous picture!

I just wonder if the guy thought they replaced the impeller but through miscommunication or whatever, it didn't actually get done. I can easily see it being the original, which is WAY overdue for replacement - hope you didn't have an impeller come apart.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Boat looks awesome on the water. If you haven't already taken you boat to the dealer it may be worth having a quick look at the impeller yourself, as it is easily accessed.

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Matt-

2007 Four Winns H190
Earth First, We'll Mine the Other Planets Later

Thanks. I would say that this describes my issue pretty well. No engine slowness at all.. my brother (the one taking the pictures) could see some smoke and as soon as the warning light came on, I shut it off.

Thanks. Unfortunately, the boat is in storage almost 1.5-2 hours away so I don't have very easy access. My brother is "friends" with on of the boat dealers around the lake and they are going to look at it for me. I am pretty comfortable that they will treat me fairly...I hope.

Thanks. I got lucky that my brother happened to bring his camera with him because I had mine with us in the boat. He is a more experience boater and was just waiting around a few minutes to make sure we got started good and took a few pictures (and then tried to help me troubleshoot the heat issue while shouting back for form the shore).

Here's one more pic (I feel like a proud papa).

Was it smoke or just steam? There's going to be a certain amount of whitish steam as part of the exhaust, this is normal as the cooling system has to eject the water. Is it freshwater (using antifreeze) or raw water cooled? If it's using antifreeze then you'd be able to smell it and, presumably, see a bit of residue on the water (throttle it up while in neutral on a smooth section of water).

It's always a good idea to know how to replace, and have spare of, your impeller and thermostat. They're usually placed such that it's a reasonable easy task. I make sure to have spares and the tools necessary to do it. It doesn't take much to chew up an impeller. It'd be a real pain in the butt to have one go bad early in the day and have it ruin the experience waiting for a tow back the marina. And then the added wait for dealer repair. All for a job that can usually be done inside of an hour (often a lot quicker).

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Just to give everyone an update. The repair shop called and the issue with my boat was the impeller. They said that it did not appear to have been replaced lately. Bill was only $109 including pickup/return to storage and test drive on the lake. I'll take that for my first repair and probably go ahead and let them replace it every year when they winterize it and change the oil.

Now I'm itching to try for Maiden Voyage...Take II, but it doesn't look like schedule is going to permit that until first weekend in May.

Thanks again for everyone comments.

On a side note, the blue hats we were wearing in the picture were for a my beloved Memphis Tigers. My son and I were in San Antonio for the Final Four and very proud of our team, but deeply heartbroken at how the game ended. I'm only now able to talk about it without the gut-wrenching feeling around my heart. Go Tigers!

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John
2001 Four Winns Horizon 230
VP 5.7 GSi / DP
2007 Ford Expedition EL

Great news John! Glad it was an inexpensive repair.

Some impellers last ages, others crap out even faster than one season. Go figure. That's why I always keep a fresh spare on board. I rotate that spare into the engine (or genset) the start of the next season, and then get a fresh spare. Rubber doesn't last forever and it'd really suck to have a spare on board only to find it's dry rotted!

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

As I suspected. Glad it was just the impeller. It was probably original and you're lucky it didn't come apart at that age. Assuming you don't run in shallow sandy waters and/or put a ton of hours on it every year, replacing it every couple of years should be enough.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

It appears that the impeller is the MOST important maintenace item on our boats.

I need to learn how to do it myself since my dealer just charged me $54.52 for a Volvo 3842786 IMPELLER KIT '06 and $190.00 RETAIL LABOR to install the same

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Jeff

2006 Four Winns Yellow Horizon 30th Anniversary 200 SS
2005 Nissan Titan Crew Cab
2004 Ford F-150 Lariat

http://www.seabrook-services.com

That parts price is a little high, not really out of line for dealer parts. You can get the kit from Doug Russell for around $45, IIRC. That labor charge, however, is insane.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic