Possible engine damage

"We hit a sandbar last night.

"We hit a sandbar last night. It's a mercruiser 470 '78 i/o. The outdrive hit the ground hard. The motor kept running until I was sure that is what happened. I down throttled to see if we were still on it, then shut down. Once clear we tried to start it, it grinded really bad, then made kind of a zinging noise and wouldn't start. I dont think the prop spun loose like they are supposed to. Can you give me a list of the problems that I could be facing from best to worst? I can not put any more money into the boat other than fixing it myself. Thanks."

spun prop hub
broken engine c

spun prop hub
broken engine coupler
bent prop
engine should still start though. tell me more.

"After hit and I throttled dow

"After hit and I throttled down, it was still running and sounded normal. I turned it off pretty quick because we were still hitting sand. When we tried to restart after getting in deeper water, it made a terrible grinding metal clanking noise. I tried to turn it over again and the grinding seemed to have given way, like something was broken and cleared the way. It then seemed like it was just turning without resistence but wouldn't start. We quit after that. We just got the boat to my house, so I may know more this afternoon when I have a chance to look at it. Seems like the prop is free spinning, so that may be a good thing if it spun after all and that is all it is."

let us know what you find out.

let us know what you find out. Those things actually can take a beating... but there are a lot of things that can go wrong.