Weepy Volvo Weep Hole

[SailingYoungs]

I have a Volvo TMD22 mounted in my engine room. I've noticed that there is a lot of water coming out of the weep hole in the water pump">raw water pump. It comes from the opposite side of the impeller. When we run the motor for several hours, the motor is all covered with salt from the dripping water coming from the weep hole and drying out on the hot engine. We sail in the Caribbean. I don't know if that is a factor or not.

Anyway, is this normal behavior? I checked the impeller and it is in good condition.

Also, this may be related, but it doesn't seem like there is a lot of exhaust water coming out of the stern. I've had Perkins Diesel engines before and they seem to pump a lot more seawater than this volvo I have. Thoughts?

[Sailmonkey]

The weep hole is there to indicate a problem, and to keep the water from going into the engine.
You have a bad seal behind the impeller that needs to be changed ASAP. You'd be amazed at how a seemingly small sewater leak can destroy all wiring around the engine rapidly.

[barnakiel]

Replace both gaskets, check oil.

I believe this info is in Volvo manual.

b.

[SailingYoungs]

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll look for those gaskkets. I looked in my spare impeller box and it doesn't look like there are any gaskets in there which go on the other side of the pump. There is the thin paper-like gasket for the faceplate. So I guess I will need to order one. It's probably an o-ring or something, right?

TY

[Sailmonkey]

it's not a gasket at all, it is called a lip seal.
to change it you'll need to dismount the pump, remove the shaft, remove (probably destructivly) the old seal, and then gently press in the new one.

[Chief Engineer]

If you can carefully remove the seal....you might be able to get a # off of it

Thus might save you from paying a bazillion carribean dollars for a Volvo seal.

[barnakiel]

Yap, seal, not gasket, both of them.

b.

[Rex Delay]

Do this immediately! Your seal is shot and will allow water into the engine oil. Sea water is a crappy lubricant! Just lost my Buhk because of the same situation but the weep hole was blocked so no indication of what was happening. Very expensive lesson.

[mike d.]

there is a kit you can get from Vovlo for about $50 that has both seals and the bearing and impeller. had same prob. with our boat when we bought it. the big pain was to get at the pump and remove and then reinstall. the seal replacement was really strait forward unless you are not mech. inclined. took me about 1/2 hour to repair pump, but about hr to get it back into mount with gears meshing properly. the biggest prob. i had was room and working around fresh water cooling lines and hydraulic lines for tranny. if i can find parts bag will get nos. for you

[SailingYoungs]

Hi folks. Thanks for the help. I replaced the seal and that seems to have solved the problem. There was no possibility of water getting into the engine oil on this one. The pump is mounted outside the engine and runs off a belt and the water goes into a heat exchanger. I ended up getting a new bearing at Budget Marine while I was had it out. The kit with the impellers and the shaft was more like $200 so I went with just the parts I needed. Although it looks like I'll be needing a new shaft in a few years as it has a groove working into it. A new pump for this baby is $600 plus, so I'm glad I was able to replace the seal myself and get it working well again. Thanks everyone.