I just ran my boat onto a sandbar and saw a lot of sand & muck shoot up when I raised my motor to get off. Once in deeper water I throttled back up to full speed and within a minute my overheating alarm and light went on. I throttled down, noted that the tell-tail stream looked ok and proceeded back to the dock at low rpm. The light and alarm went off quickly so I throttled back up and the motor started bucking badly so I throttled back down to low rpm until I got back in. At the dock I turned off the motor and started it back up and it seemed to run ok in neutral. I was too afraid to go back out and test it least the motor crapped out and brought the boat home.
I read in the manual that when overheats it goes into the "SLOW" mode until the motor is shut off. At home I flushed the motor with the hose connection and ran it. It seems to be fine but skipped a bit when I throttled it up. I don't know if this was just because it was out of the water and I am hearing things or what.
What should I do? Is it worth pulling the thermostats to clean, run it on idle for a while? I read that I should check the head bolt torques. What should they be at?
I read in the manual that when overheats it goes into the "SLOW" mode until the motor is shut off. At home I flushed the motor with the hose connection and ran it. It seems to be fine but skipped a bit when I throttled it up. I don't know if this was just because it was out of the water and I am hearing things or what.
What should I do? Is it worth pulling the thermostats to clean, run it on idle for a while? I read that I should check the head bolt torques. What should they be at?