Mercury Water Pump Impellor

Tough call. Rubber gets hard, and cracks. If you have looked at the impeller, it is in quite a bind as it flexes like mad inside the housing. Eventually one or more of those rubber blades will crack and break off, and the effectiveness of the pump goes downhill. And those pieces of rubber can block a thermostat or poppet valve, one will cause it to run too cold, the other will let the power head run dry at low speeds, neither of which is a good thing.The idea is, the impeller will work until it stops. The closer you push it to that “until it stops” point the riskier it becomes. Last time I looked these are about 40 bucks for the kit. $13.33 per year doesnt sound like a lot compared to the other option, replacing a powerhead. If it is something that might make it not crank, I wouldnt be very concerned (i.e. a battery, I am not going to replace that until I am sure it is beginning to fail). If it is something that could cause a catastrophic engine failure, I would be all over that. I tend to watch my impellers closely and keep careful records of what gets replaced and when. If the impeller looks almost new (blades will always have a “set” so I am not talking about that, more like cracked, chipped, signs of excessive wear) then I might stretch the interval. My first 2.5 block I replaced the thing every year at first, before stretching that out to every 2-3 years. I just bought my current boat with a 2014 Pro XS. Im going to replace the impeller over the winter, assuming it has not been replaced in the last two years. I fish a lot for 9 months of the year, less during the frigid months, so I am going to be cautious with this. An alternative issue is plugs. You can replace em yearly. Or you can wait until running quality starts to suffer. Not going to cause the motor to blow up, so blowing $120 on plugs every year is not something I want to do. If I were anal about plugs, I would just keep a spare set in my boat tool box. Not that hard to change at the ramp.Long answer to a short question. If you keep a close eye on WP and engine temp, you should be pretty safe.Last edited by oldtimer57 on December 4th, 2016, 5:48 am, edited 1 time in total.2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200

With my old motor I changed yearly. The old motor had a analog temp. Gauge which was not no where as accurate as the monitor which I have know on my 2013 pro xs. The problem I had was the gasket under the impeller housing. A well known Mechanic gave me a gasket made on the plate this last time I changed. He told me it would last and it was I think he said a 300 that the bolt holts and opening were the same and it would end the gasket issue.My motor is a 200. My water pressure runs around 25 at wot. Also if a boat sits a lot as mine does it think it changed more often. The mechanic told me if one uses it regularly every 2 yrs on a water pump. My self my boat gets used hard for 4 month regularly and then once or twice a month from their. Also I fish the cold months. A friend of mine just changed his pump on his 250 the gasket was blown out the side as well. He was given the same plate with the gasket made onto the plate as well. His water pressure jumped up to 23 psi. From 17 psi. His water pump old pump as far as looks looked new. Though we changed it while we was at this point.2013 PANTERA 2MERCURY 200 PRO XSMINNKOTA 80LB FORTREX25 fury