I have a 2000 Triton TR21 bass boat with a Mercury 225 Optimax outboard. Today, I ran in the back of a tidal river creek, and at low tide the boat got semi-stuck on a mud flat (I know, stupid for not watching the tide flow better, LOL). Anyways, the only way out was to bury the outboard and gun it out of the mud; after getting out, the overheat alarm came on, so I immediately shut the motor down. I used the trolling motor for about 20 minutes, while I kept the lower unit of the outboard submerged in clean water. I started the outboard and she ran about 1 minute with no flow from the pee hole. Then water started to come out of the pee hole, but it was dirty. It finally cleared. I let the motor run for about 10 minutes to flush it in open water. All gauges read ok, and the H2O pressure was about 20. On the way back up the river, I was running at about 65 mph, then all of a sudden the boat jerked hard, and the motor sounded like it was reving too high. I shut her down again and restarted, no problems starting, but the once the rpms go over approx 1500 to get back on plane it sounds like its revving too high, and it will not let me go over 1500 rpms.
Once back on shore, I noticed lower unit oil on the skeg. Any ideas on what may be wrong?
Thanks so much for your help!
Once back on shore, I noticed lower unit oil on the skeg. Any ideas on what may be wrong?
Thanks so much for your help!