Yesterday was a fun experience. Grounded the boat on a small sand bar. I knew I was in shallow water so I was idling in and the engine quit. My assumption is the prop bogged down in the dirt and stalled the engine out. Engine restarted ok and just had to shift weight around on the boat to get out.
A little later down the river, I started to venture into a creek and decided to back off since I knew it was low tide. I turned around and gave it a little gas and felt a nice shudder, backed off and realized I was getting caught in some plant life. Got clear of the plant life and sped off. This was followed by the alarm going off due to overtemp. I idled back down and the engine temp dropped and the alarm shut off. I started to rev up, 1000-2000 rpms and noticed the temp guage starting to climb again so I throttled back. Luckily at this point I was right near the ramp and just idled over loaded up and went home.
When I got home, I put the muffs on to flush out and after about 30 seconds or a little more, no water was coming out of the exhaust. I know it takes a few seconds for the water to work its way through, but since I saw the temp guage rising from being cold, I killed the engine. Not going to risk running any longer since I thought water should have be coming out of the exhaust by then. At this point I figured I had sucked some bits of plant life in or the impeller decided to quit on me. Since I had just bought the boat several weeks ago, the only records I have is the regular winterization with engine oil change, so I don't know when the impeller was last done. I was going to take care of all this come winterization time.
After things cooled off a bit, I decided to pull the water intake hose off the thermostat housing and use the garden hose in an attempt to back flush. Leaving the hose disconnected, I put the muffs back on and started the engine to see if I got water flow. Water was flowing within 30 sec and I was ready to kill the engine if no flow. I put everything back together and started the engine up and within 30 sec, water was flowing out of the exhaust. I continued to let it run so I could get the flush done and the temp reached normal reading.
So, I don't know if the overtemp issue is resolved. I'm leaning now to replace the impeller before I take it out again but then I'm going to basically change the gear lube twice, now and when I winterize it. That's probably not a big thing since the oil is fairly cheap.
I'm riding a 2005 Chap 204 SSi with 5.0L TKS. I guess I need to realize I'm not in my old little 14 alum with a 15hp when I could putt around in shallow water.
Any thoughts?
A little later down the river, I started to venture into a creek and decided to back off since I knew it was low tide. I turned around and gave it a little gas and felt a nice shudder, backed off and realized I was getting caught in some plant life. Got clear of the plant life and sped off. This was followed by the alarm going off due to overtemp. I idled back down and the engine temp dropped and the alarm shut off. I started to rev up, 1000-2000 rpms and noticed the temp guage starting to climb again so I throttled back. Luckily at this point I was right near the ramp and just idled over loaded up and went home.
When I got home, I put the muffs on to flush out and after about 30 seconds or a little more, no water was coming out of the exhaust. I know it takes a few seconds for the water to work its way through, but since I saw the temp guage rising from being cold, I killed the engine. Not going to risk running any longer since I thought water should have be coming out of the exhaust by then. At this point I figured I had sucked some bits of plant life in or the impeller decided to quit on me. Since I had just bought the boat several weeks ago, the only records I have is the regular winterization with engine oil change, so I don't know when the impeller was last done. I was going to take care of all this come winterization time.
After things cooled off a bit, I decided to pull the water intake hose off the thermostat housing and use the garden hose in an attempt to back flush. Leaving the hose disconnected, I put the muffs back on and started the engine to see if I got water flow. Water was flowing within 30 sec and I was ready to kill the engine if no flow. I put everything back together and started the engine up and within 30 sec, water was flowing out of the exhaust. I continued to let it run so I could get the flush done and the temp reached normal reading.
So, I don't know if the overtemp issue is resolved. I'm leaning now to replace the impeller before I take it out again but then I'm going to basically change the gear lube twice, now and when I winterize it. That's probably not a big thing since the oil is fairly cheap.
I'm riding a 2005 Chap 204 SSi with 5.0L TKS. I guess I need to realize I'm not in my old little 14 alum with a 15hp when I could putt around in shallow water.
Any thoughts?
