Really!!!??? Your motor is fine. You just sand blasted your prop and it lost its shine. Take it to a prop shop, and they can buff it out for you. If your insurance company would replace your motor, let me know who you deal with because I want some of that. Just go fishing and don't worry about it!

i don't think your insurance company will put you a new motor cause your prop is dull and the motor runs fine??? just be more careful, in the future??? if you fish, this will happen sooner or later!!

That motor is shot sell it to me I think I can fix it

Lucky, your probably right. I'm sure that motor is shot. I'll give $200 for it.

...a mechanic is going to give you the high end quote, insurance will lo-ball it and the sand bar is pilot error... it really depends on your insurance agent...watch and see how much he 'blinks' ??? have fun...cheers

Lol i agree with that got a little closer to an under water sand bar i knew was there in the bay. next time want be so anxious.

I think it's a mercury you can have it

if you were my friend i would say you really NEED TO take off the lower unit and have it re-powder coated to prevent corrosion. just repainting it wont last very long and you want to keep the corrosion at bey so do it right. no matter what you do there is no doubt the water pump was sucking in sand so i would replace it and backflush the water jacket system 3 ways to sunday to get as much sand out of the engine as you possably can.

as to the prop, i would agree its just the finish thats dull and polishing will fix that but it should be tested for trueness and make sure the pitch hasnt changed after literally plowing thru the sandbar which could have distorted the blades changing the pitch and balance on them.

If its a Yami 4 stroke it can't be any good after that , I'll come remove it and even give you enough to cover the taxes on your new motor for it. Theres no point in flushing it, if you used it after you got off sandbar it was flushed out. Was your Sportsman handle a contributor to the grounding?

Bigjim, I was thinking the same thing!

no wasn't drinking yet but came a little closer to sand bar i knew that had been growing every year. Pulled several people off that bar over the years and now i got the pleasure of being a victim.

P.S.
I rarely drink thuoght it was a funny handle.

people shouldnt recommend to ignore good advice unless they KNOW what they are talking about. running the engine after the sand bar only pumps the sand farther into the engine and it collects in all the nooks and cranny it can find. there just isnt a large enough or fast enough volume of water produced by the water pump to carry the sand out of the engine. not to mention the pump most likely wasnt even at ful pressure due to grinding sand thru it that it sucked up from the sand bar.

backflushing is done by running water in the opposite direction of normal flow and your hose gives you a lot more volume and pressure to flush out any sediments. it is usually done from the theormostat location after it is removed and without the restriction of the thermostat there is more volume and force of water flowing thru the block. the water flows opposite from its normal direction and exits from the bottom of the water tube that goes into the water pump housing

you WILL see a lot of sand come out when you back flush it and its a good habit to do it anytime you drop the lower unit when you are replacing the impeller.

you would be surprised how often you see a lot of crap come out of back flushed engines that you would think for certain they should be clean

Keakar i did back flush immediately when i got to the dock but i am taking it to bass pro in the morning for inspection and let them do what they need to do. I hope they don't find nothing cause i have less than 10 hrs on it. I did run it for the next 4 days why i was there cause everything seems fine but i do want a qualified person to go through it.

Hey Keakar didn't mean to upset you and your advice is sound but some unrealistic. Yes flushing motor wouldn't hurt a bit and is good advice. Powder coating the lower unit is unrealistic, you would have to gut the lower in order to do this then reassemble to specs. This is very unrealistic for loss paint on skeg. Light sanding, some zinc chromate and OEM paint and that part will be as good as new. When we duck and deer hunt in Pass A Loutre in Venice for 6 days at a time we probably go through considerable sand at least twenty times per trip and usually one hard grounding, the nature of the beast of hunting down there. We stop at car wash and clean her and flush her once at home on hose. I am very into checking lower unit oil for water after every trip, I simply open bottom screw and reinstall as soon as I see oil is clear. I've run motors all my life and use my boat 2 or 3 times a week and never have motor trouble, I keep up with regular PM. It's common for friends and myself to get 15 years out of motors with little or no major problems with just regular PM. My current motor is 18 years old and runs like shes brand new. I do have a brand new 4 stroke sitting in garage ready just in case as I don't want to miss any days on the water god forbid Nelly should die. People who fish shallows and rivers encounter sand and shallows all the time. Sure you should check your prop shaft to make sure she isn't bent and I would check oil after every trip at least the next couple trips to make sure you didn't compromise seal. I'm not hear to argue with you Keaker just being realistic about fishing hard in South Louisiana. I'm not saying you should abuse your motor but you they are plenty tough enough to take a little of South Louisiana and still last 15 to 20 years with reasonable PM.

@ bigjim

i wasnt upset as much as frustrated that a person would say good advice shouldnt be followed. an individual who decides to take shortcuts when it comes to his own engine is fine but i would never recommend to others that THEY should ever take shortcuts when it comes to proper maint. on a motor.

there is a HUGE difference in manually backflushing a motor and just hooking up the hose pipe and normally flushing it as you always do which is what i tried to explain.


as to the paint issue, i thought he said the whole lower unit was bare not just the skeg, you are correct, its just the skeg paint we are talking about so there is no cavity where corrosion can cause issues so just painting that is fine and all the protection you need.


as to the difficulty of gutting the lower unit, gutting the lower unit isnt THAT big of a job if you are fairly mechanical.