Did I kill my pump?

About a month ago, I installed a ball valve on my other inlet to help during starting. I use a cat 4sf pump. The valve is open and dumps on the ground while I start the engine(water is on). Once the engine is running for about 30 seconds at full rpm, I slowly close the valve and go to work. Before shutting down, I turn the engine down(water is still on) and I open the valve(water dumps on the ground) and I let the engine run for about 30 seconds at idle.

Yesterday while using for about 15 minutes, I heard a loud pop the engine died and water starts spraying out of every connection in my foot pedal. Go to the pressure washer and restart, close the valve and the pump hits 5000 psi and now the pump head is leaking(my pump is rated for 3500 psi).

I'm guessing my unloader is at fault and a pump rebuild is in order. I have a replacement pump to use so the down time won't be an issue. But did that valve I installed have anything to do with the unloader failure or is it a bad idea to use?

EDIT: Messed up writing this, the ball valve is on the OUTLET. There is water running through the pump the entire time the engine is running. sorry about that.

I am not an equipment expert, that is why I call Russ or Bill when I have issues. That being said, I cannot imagine letting water out through the inlet while the engine is running is good for it. I would assume you would be starving the pump of water that way. When you get the pump replaced, take that ball valve off the inlet side, and put a ball valve at the end of your pressurized line and leave it open while starting. That should make it easier to start as well as allow you to switch from wands to surface cleaner quickly.

Anytime you hear a loud pop it's usually not a good thing. I'm guess something inside the pump broke bad enough for either a replacement or a complete rebuild.

I always just hold the gun open when I'm starting the engine.

curious as to why you felt you need a dump valve on the feed side of your pump in the first place. If the pressure ramped up to 5000psi then surely the unloader on the pressure side is not working or is slow to work. I can understand you having a dump valve on the pressure side of the pump if need be. I just pull the trigger and let the pressure off the line before I restart my unit.

Yeah water goes in 1 inlet and out the other. Cavitation city.

You defiantly caused the pump to starve for water, you will more than likely have to rebuild the pump!

WASH-IT H.B. said:

curious as to why you felt you need a dump valve on the feed side of your pump in the first place. If the pressure ramped up to 5000psi then surely the unloader on the pressure side is not working or is slow to work. I can understand you having a dump valve on the pressure side of the pump if need be. I just pull the trigger and let the pressure off the line before I restart my unit.

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Sometimes the pump hydrolocks when starting and you need to have the trigger pulled to relieve the built up pressure. Essentially I was trying to make a manual easy start valve. My pump has 2 outlets.....one on each side of the pump. The outlet to my hoses is opposite of the inlet. The outlet with the ball valve is on the same side of my inlet.

extremecleantn said:

You defiantly caused the pump to starve for water, you will more than likely have to rebuild the pump!

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Can you explain how the pump was starved? Thanks.

Did you have a pressure relief valve installed on the pump? If not, it may have prevented the pump from over-pressurizing. Best $15 to invest in.

HighTide said:

Did you have a pressure relief valve installed on the pump? If not, it may have prevented the pump from over-pressurizing. Best $15 to invest in.

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No I didn't...lesson learned!!!

gear junkie said:

Can you explain how the pump was starved? Thanks.

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He's going off the information you gave.

gear junkie said:

About a month ago, I installed a ball valve on my other inlet to help during starting.

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If you installed a ball valve on your other inlet and opened it while you were starting your machine, you were depriving your pump of water. I don't know if that would make it so the pump didn't get enough water, but I'm sure it's not good for it. Plus you said you ran it for 30 seconds like that each time.

Now you are saying you had the ball valve on the outlet. That changes eveyrthing.

Shoot, yep, you guys caught the typo.....sorry about that, messed that up...I see the confusion. To start over.....The ball valve is on the outlet(100% sure this time).

So did the valve cause any issues and is the ball valve on the outlet a bad idea?

Ben, what you're doing there shouldn't hurt anything.

It does sound like your unloader went bad though.

Very cool Russ thanks. The pump and unloader were kinda old. Maybe just coincidence it happened after I installed the pump.....just my luck, lol.

It would seem like if the unloader went bad, a hose would have popped and not the pump. At any rate I hate it for ya. I like the idea of a ball valve at the pump head to relieve pressure while starting. That would be better than dragging wand back to machine so you can pull the trigger while turning the key!

Rance said:

It would seem like if the unloader went bad, a hose would have popped and not the pump. At any rate I hate it for ya. I like the idea of a ball valve at the pump head to relieve pressure while starting. That would be better than dragging wand back to machine so you can pull the trigger while turning the key!

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Ball valve at the reel is what we do and it works great

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"Did I kill my pump?"

I didn't kill mine, but it died today nonetheless -- an AR 4000/3.8 on a Honda gx 390. I'm considering undertaking a rebuild, but curious about the difficulty level. Any suggestions for a non-mechanical person?

Here's the finished setup. Works great!