Cummins 6BTA 5.9 45 Min Impeller swap

[Pgitug]

Call me a happy camper. A couple of years ago I had my Cummins raw water pump replaced with a Seaboard Marine pump. This was the first time I replaced the raw water pump Impeller. What a great pump/Impeller design. Take off the cover plate. Twist lock the Impeller puller and 4 minutes with a racket wrench the Impeller is out.
Just make sure the new Impeller goes in with the puller “Wings” facing out.

 

[dwhatty]

Ditto here. Also, I removed the fuel cooler per Tony Athens. Made accessing the pump for impeller changes much easier.

 

[Pgitug]

Ditto here. Also, I removed the fuel cooler per Tony Athens. Made accessing the pump for impeller changes much easier.

I was thinking about doing that. What area / water temperatures do you cruise in? I’m in Florida with 88 degree summer waters.

 

[dwhatty]

I was thinking about doing that. What area / water temperatures do you cruise in? I’m in Florida with 88 degree summer waters.

Maine. But email or talk with Tony Athens. I got the impression that his position is that the cooler is not needed on a recreational boat that isn't running hard all day. But I may misremember.

 

[Puffin_NT32]

I just replaced the impeller on my SeaMax (Seaboard Marine) water pump yesterday... 30 minutes, and not rushing. I will also remove the fuel cooler with the Seaboard kit sometime this year.

 

[Captain Doug]

I removed my fuel cooler from my 6BTA 5.9 Cummins and used the Seaboard kit, 2 hrs start to finish clean up. Nordic Tug in SC.

 

[dhays]

I removed my fuel cooler from my 6BTA 5.9 Cummins and used the Seaboard kit, 2 hrs start to finish clean up. Nordic Tug in SC.

I have seriously considered removing the fuel cooler as well. I generally have about 100-150 gallons of fuel in the tank that I’m using at any given time. My tanks are outboard of the ER on either side and the hull is sitting in 52 degree water. I also am running my QSB 5.9 at a pretty low load, usually about 1,450 rpm which is about 30% load I think.

So, I don’t think I need to cool my fuel and I wouldn’t mind eliminating another potential point of failure in the system. I have to say though, I really hate dealing with fuel lines so I have avoided it.

 

[firehoser75]

Dave,
I removed my fuel cooler this spring. I did not use the SB Marine kit, just removed the cooler and replaced one hose (at a local hose suppler). Therefore, I did not remove the fuel combo block. My first impeller change (in the Seamax pump) will be done this spring. Hopefully it will be easy!
The job was very straightforward, and I did not notice any negatives during this summer's cruising (about 200 hours). We cruise mostly at about 1/2 throttle.

Regards,
Tom

 

[dhays]

Dave,
I removed my fuel cooler this spring. I did not use the SB Marine kit, just removed the cooler and replaced one hose (at a local hose suppler). Therefore, I did not remove the fuel combo block. My first impeller change (in the Seamax pump) will be done this spring. Hopefully it will be easy!
The job was very straightforward, and I did not notice any negatives during this summer's cruising (about 200 hours). We cruise mostly at about 1/2 throttle.

Regards,
Tom

Thank Tom. I’ll look at that.

The first time I changed the impeller in my 5.9 I couldn’t do it. I had a mechanic down on the boat to remove and service the aftercooler. I put my ego aside and asked him to do it. He couldn’t either. I had removed the impeller without too much trouble but we couldn’t put the new one in.

Hours later, we gave up. On a hunch, I pulled out another spare impeller that I had on board. The splines looks slightly different. This one slipped right in. The bad impeller was on the boat when i bought it, new it its package. The molded part number was correct. It just didn’t fit.