Wear ring issue?

[kwiktsi]

I'm thinking this is what it is. Anyway, 08 Speedster 150 215hp. My brother in law took it out a couple of weeks ago and said it was vibrating horribly and cavitating really bad when he tried to accelerate. He tried limping it back to the trailer, but by the time he got there, he said the problem went away and it felt ok to him (only his second time driving this boat).

I just picked the boat up from him and took it out for the first time since I parked it (almost two years ago now!). It seems to be way down on acceleration and a few MPH on top (seemed to be maxing about 43 on the stock speedo). If I nail it out of the hole, It just doesn't seem to have the grunt I remember it having. It seems to rev quickly to 8100 or so and hold there while the boat accelerates. You can feel and hear surging in power as it's accelerating, like it's cavitating, but not horribly.

I'm thinking he sucked something into it and damaged either the impeller or wear ring, anybody else have opinions here? If he did suck something small into it (stick or something), would that cause the vibration he said it had while it was in there- maybe tangled something in an impeller blade and threw off the balance?

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[Mike Spoolin]

I sucked up a oil cap a couple of weeks ago. Cavitated bad, and vibrated at anything above idle. It eventually popped out. Didn't damage the impeller or wear ring. Still tops out at 43 mph on GPS with 800+ lbs on board. (2005 C180 SCIC 215hp)