Is my motor okay???

[PTocko]

Okay - last night I did a bone headed thing. I had my three year old with me and I was not following my normal boat "pull out" routine. As a result I loaded the boat and pulled it out of the water with the motor still idleing. I caught it very quickly (30 seconds tops) and shut it down. Water was still streaming from the "pee" hole. I put the boat back in the water and started it and let it run for a bit to let it cool down. Did not seem like there was any issues but... Any opinions on what - if anything - I should check for damage. I'm thinking maybe the impeller but I was going to relplace at the end of the year anyway - I don't think the heads would have gotten that hot in 30 seconds to do any damage but who knows. Motor is a 99 Mercury 40 hp four stroke. As I said it did start no problem and seem to run fine so I think I'm okay. And I promise I will never do this to my motor again. Paul

[pinkfloyd4ever]

I think you'll be ok, done the same thing and not had any problems, but there are more qualified people to answer than me, but I've been there too

[Sandmannd]

I'm sure you will be fine. As long as it still had water going through it it shouldn't have hurt anything. Also the fact that it wasn't under load (in gear) is a good thing.

[SkitterPopper]

You sound be just fine. In fact this is a common practice with late fall early spring river anglers. They do not want to have any water in the motor for risk of freezing and expanding. The 30 seconds you left it on is a little more than most guys do but I still think you are OK. Your impeller should be ok seeing it was still very wet. You will run into more trouble cranking it over when the impeller is dry.

[marine_man]

I think you'll be OK... keep an eye on your telltale stream and if it starts to slow down at idle to a trickle it's time to replace the impeller.

marine_man