Anyone Ever Had A REALLY BAD Pump Day?

[UBFJ #454]

I've posted some pic's and started a thread over on the Real Jet Boats Forum about something rather drastic that happened to us at the NJBA 2004 Season Opener @ Lake Ming. I'm posting here as I thought some of you might be interested and have some significant input ... I started the thread over there rather than here as I know alot more of the jetters there personally than I do Here ... Hope no one takes offense.

[Nubbs]

How about a link??

[waterslinger]

Yea, What he said.

[Beal Motorsports]

When we were running the texas tunnel at Choteau, OK a duck went under just as the boat went over it. Sucked it right up in the impeller. Was fine until we shut it off. Then had to pull it down and do a clean out. Everything was fine though.

[UBFJ #454]

Poor Duck ... Wish we'd been so Lucky.

[Boater Bill]

Wild story and pics. Seems like your cat used one of his nine lives. Reminds me of the saga of the Comet, without the tragedy.
Best of luck as you move forward in your quest.

[UBFJ #454]

Thanks Bill ... I'm told "That if we use our Heads" we might just have a "Bag of Cats" ... But ... I'm not Counting on It!

[fourspeednup]

holy chit mang! (http://www.realjetboats.com/cgi/yabb/YaBB.pl/YaBB.pl?board=news;action=display;num=1080180394)
Glad to hear everything was OK (except for the intake;) )
Good thing that pump is set back or you'd a had a huge hole in the bottom of the boat:eek:

[moneysucker]

Sorry to see that. My berk suction piece is around the same year. Thanks! now I have one more thing to worry about. I have added an extra layer of paint to help strengthen it. This type of blow out isn't something that I would have ever thought about. Thanks for posting your mis fortune and thank god no-one was hurt.
Cy

[UBFJ #454]

money - Didn't mean to add worry ... just awareness ... message was, and is, simply check your gear and know what your running ... I was Totally Blind Sided by this incident ... And I, Should Have Known Better.

[moneysucker]

I am hoping the high test paint and clear helps. At least it will look good when it grenades. The new blower motor may even put it to the test. I plan to race a bracket at ming this year and may see you at fire bird. I am racing a bracket to get my feet wet, Not literally, and tune my skills. No reason to jump in to blown gas jet and get stomped out of the gate. I hate losing too much to subject my self to a season like that. I need the race experience anyways. Hope to see you out there. Good luck with the rebuild.
Cy

[American Turbine Man]

I've posted some pic's and started a thread over on the Real Jet Boats Forum about something rather drastic that happened to us at the NJBA 2004 Season Opener @ Lake Ming. I'm posting here as I thought some of you might be interested and have some significant input ... I started the thread over there rather than here as I know alot more of the jetters there personally than I do Here ... Hope no one takes offense.
Bear
I am sure your problem is from Hi-Speed cavitation. Your suction maybe thirty years old and could have been run pretty hard. It is a good practice to check for cracks on any jet drive that runs over eighty. Did you have the suction housing powder coated? Sometimes the powder coater will strip the coatings off in an oven, annealing the aluminum.
ATM

[UBFJ #454]

American Turbine Man -
Yes, the "Suction" Piece had been powder coated in the past and after it exploded I began to wonder about AL annealing during powder coating. Do you recommend not powder coating pumps after they come from the factory? I would appreciate your recommendation on this point ... Powder coat or not.
While I definately agree that Hi-Speed Cavitation was a major contributing facture in the casing's failure, I believe it, the failure, was due to a combination of things (in order of significance) ... The Thinness in the Casting's Wall in the area of the failure (Caused by Core Shift In The Casting Process ... Hopefully Not Present In The New Piece Currently In Route); The Age of the Piece, its History (Number of Cycles It Has Been Put Through) and, The Environment It Has Been Run In During its Life (Amounts of Tq, Hp, Stress, etc., It Has Been Subjected To) ... All causing metal fatigue ... and; As you mention, Hi-Speed Cavitation. I believe that all of these factors came together to cause what happened to happen. Note, I believe that I'll have the Hi-Speed Cavitation problem solved when I match the Keel Bump to the intake and new "Suction" Piece. Also, we are very careful to Throughly Inspect the pump, both topside and underneath, as well as all other water management components After Every Run.
We decided to go with your Dominator "Suction" Piece as a replacement for the older Berkeley for several reasons: 1) We were assured that the wall thickness of the Dominator was more than twice the thickness of the old Berkeley in the area of the break (0.155), 2) The quality control of the casting of the piece was superior (No Core Shift) and 3) the external ribs of the Dominator design offer more strength in the area of the break we experienced. Obviously, price was also a factor. At this point, I am quite comfortable with our choice.
In the old days I think the casting's coating color of the Dominators was black, but, I notice on your website that they are now white ... Which color was sent to us?
My Regards,
Jak Young,
Black Bear Racing

[Jungle Boy]

Some of the highend boats in whitewater racing have had the problem of suction housings blowing apart due to pump loading and unloading. Rob at Eagle Racing has designed and had this suction housing made to stop this problem. It is designed to be 6 times stronger than a stock Berkley. It fits Berkley parts and the intake ramp has been modifed for the better pump loading. One of these could be right for you.
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/500/259custompump.jpg
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/500/259custompump2.jpg
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/500/259custompump3.jpg

[Beal Motorsports]

Man, that things probably the price of a backup motor :jawdrop:

[UBFJ #454]

A Billet Piece something like that may be in our future, but, for now the Dominator Piece is a simple swap-in (No Motor Alignment Issues, etc.) and much more cost effecyive than the Eagle Piece.
Now if someone from Eagle contacted me and asked if I would be interested in running one of their units (that was modified to our needs) for their testing program, I might be interested in discussing such an arrangement ... To integrate one of their units into our Setup and Program would require quite a bit of work on our part ... Something I might be willing to do if the arrangement was beneficial to Both Of Us.
As I know of no serious Drag Boats that are running an Eagle Pump System, it would be new territory for both parties ... Could be interesting .....

[Jungle Boy]

Originally posted by Beal Motorsports
Man, that things probably the price of a backup motor :jawdrop:
Not really - They are around 5000 Canadian (3900 US).
Then you can toss in the bowl and have the full bulletproof set!!
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/500/259BILLIT02-med.jpg

[UBFJ #454]

6 Times the Strength @ 8 Times the Price ... Not too good of a deal to my way of thinking. Also, no one knows whether or not it would provide a significant advancement in the Drag Boat Environment ... Not Knocking the Piece ... Just commenting.

[Jungle Boy]

No problem. These are being made for river racing. It's a very different situation than blasting through a 1/4 mile run. But, 8 times the price?? You're getting suction housings for 500 bucks?
Gotta finish to win.:D

[UBFJ #454]

I Wish.

[American Turbine Man]

BEAR
Do you recommend not powder coating pumps after they come from the factory? I would appreciate your recommendation on this point ... Powder coat or not.
Its not the powder coating process. It's the stripping, some coaters strip by using a burn-off oven that can exceed 800 deg. F. At that temperature (800 F) the aluminum anneals.
We do white only, sorry.
ATM

[Cs19]

Some of the powdercoating companys get carried away and sand blast everything to death, which removes the hard anodizing and they can also make the bearing cavity and wear ring cavity too large by removing some material with the sandlaster. Then , sometimes they powdercoat parts that are not supposed to be coated, thas always fun to remove. That chemical stripper isnt all that great of a method either.Personally, I like paint.

[UBFJ #454]

New Dominator piece arrived yesterday evening ... Looks Good. Will verify measurements today and do prep work next week. Barring any suprises, we will be up and running at FireBird at the end of April. Oh yeah, not going to powder coat the piece ... It came white and as a number of you know, the boat is black and white so it fits in asthetically without having to do anything ... "If It Works, Don't Fix It".

[UBFJ #454]

Also, All of us at Black Bear Racing would like to Thank Duane of Hi-Tech Performance for Coming Through For Us With the Right Piece, in the Right Time Frame, All at A Very Competitive Price.
Thank You Duane.

[UBFJ #454]

We'd also like to thank Jack McClure (Marine Performance Design, Costa Mesa, CA) and Dave Ebbert (DNE MotorSports Development, also located in Costa Mesa) for the time they spent with us at the NJBA Opener ... Jack checking out our Edlebrock DA System, going over our pump data and reviewing our hardware setups, helping us gain insight into how to proceed Dialing In our boat ... and Dave for checking over Ms. Monneypenny (our motor) and watching out for her.
Thank You Both.

[UBFJ #454]

Thanks are also in order for Dave Jones of Aggressor pumps (we finally got to meet after 2 years of talking on the Internet) for his observations, comments and suggestions ... I am looking forward to a more "Relaxed" conversation with Dave at the upcoming FireBird Race as things got a bit hectic for us at Ming.

[UBFJ #454]

Special thanks go out to Mark Rosnos (Winner of UFJ), for if he hadn't entered UFJ, we couldn't have made the 3 extra passes we did ... Mark, "Catch You Next Time".