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As a retired service manager of a long time Cobalt dealer hopefully I can bring some of my knowledge to the page and help some people with their Cobalts.

Izzybo69 wrote: Tue Jun 27, 2023 8:56 pm As a retired service manager of a long time Cobalt dealer hopefully I can bring some of my knowledge to the page and help some people with their Cobalts.

Welcome to the forum. Can’t wait to hear your advice and comments.

Thanks for joining the forum and offering your expertise. How long were you a service manager? I assume you were a marine technician before that?

So asking for a friend, how in the heck do you remove the bilge pump out from underneath a Merc 496? It seems damn near inaccessible by mere mortals.

I think I’d rather remove the bilge pump, then do an impeller on a 496 Merc!

Depending on the year, the bilge pump was mounted to a small piece of plastic that was screwed to one of the runners. It was easiest just to remove the whole plastic piece,bilge pump and all

I owned my own business and was doing a lot of work for the local Cobalt dealer through my business. The owner approached me, offered me the job running the service department. I believe that was my 2001 or early 2002. I left last fall to go back to work for myself, fabricating, building, tuning race cars.

Welcome. Looking forward to having you here.

Very cool and welcome aboard!

As someone who tunes race cars, did you ever do any interesting tunes or performance upgrades to engines in a Cobalt? I'd be curious to hear about some of those.

Unfortunately no. We were primarily a Volvo Penta dealer (around 95%of every Cobalt sold) and Volvo has their software locked down pretty tight. I know Merc has several tuning options but I never got a chance to get into any tuning on them.

Izzybo69 wrote: Wed Jun 28, 2023 2:39 am I think I’d rather remove the bilge pump, then do an impeller on a 496 Merc!

Depending on the year, the bilge pump was mounted to a small piece of plastic that was screwed to one of the runners. It was easiest just to remove the whole plastic piece,bilge pump and all

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So true Izzybo69.
Great to have you on the site.

Do you have a favorite Cobalt model?

And welcome aboard mate.

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Welcome to the forum, Izzybo69

Sounds like you have a wealth of knowledge!

AsLan7,

The early 2000s 262 it’s probably my favorite Cobalt ever made. I like the lower profile faster hull and the center walk through. That boat with a 525, or a 575 Merc with side exit exhaust. The 282’s were OK but my second favorite boat is probably a 296 with twins. And if we’re talking current models, then I love the layout of the A29. Just wish it would’ve been optioned with twins.

Izzybo69 wrote: Wed Jun 28, 2023 2:39 am I think I’d rather remove the bilge pump, then do an impeller on a 496 Merc!

Depending on the year, the bilge pump was mounted to a small piece of plastic that was screwed to one of the runners. It was easiest just to remove the whole plastic piece,bilge pump and all

Rut row, changing the impeller was next on the to-do list. It looks like I’ll have to dismantle the rear seat in my 240 to gain access. Any tips or tricks to make the job go easier other than having a young skinny helper?

I’ll have to take a closer look at the bilge pump and try to find where and how that plastic mount is attached.

Tuning and building race cars sounds like a lot of fun.

The best advice I can give you is to remove the pump and the bracket that holds the pump to the engine all in one assembly. Do not try to just remove the pump from the bracket assembly. Not only is it much more difficult, but getting it back in and in position is next to impossible.

These pictures may not be exactly like your set up, but they should be close. You should get the idea.

Other than that, if you’ve got any missing pieces of your old impeller, be sure and flush all the hoses and back flush everything you can and try to locate them. You may already know that, but a lot of people do not.

Izzybo69 wrote: Wed Jun 28, 2023 12:47 pm AsLan7,

The early 2000s 262 it’s probably my favorite Cobalt ever made. I like the lower profile faster hull and the center walk through. That boat with a 525, or a 575 Merc with side exit exhaust. The 282’s were OK but my second favorite boat is probably a 296 with twins. And if we’re talking current models, then I love the layout of the A29. Just wish it would’ve been optioned with twins.

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Man you and I are kindred spirits. We do have one member here who just joined with the 262 that has the 525 blue series engine. I almost purchased that many years ago but wanted the Bravo 3X drive for hole shot vs the Bravo 1.

I'm also a big fan of center transom walk throughs. The boat is so well balanced when loaded up.

Yes the A29 would be a huge hit if it had twins.

What about the 343? That's my fave.

Thanks for the reply.

The 343 electrical system has a lot of issues. Whoever engineered the battery/12 V system in that boat needs a new profession. If you totally rework the batteries, battery switch, etc. then I don’t really have any complaints about the boat. I have never been a huge fan of their bigger boats.

I’ve dealt with a couple of A40’s and they are nice Boats. The 302 is probably the biggest boat in the Cobalt lineup that I was it big fan of.

Hopefully I don’t get shot for this or kicked off the page, but when you start getting into the 40’ and up boats, SeaRay has pretty much dominated that market around this area for as long as I’ve been around about business.