08 x45 8.1 - over heating

[Charles martel]

I live on a super weedy lake. At times I think I might be able to walk across it. To get to the lake we ride on we have to travel 10 minutes across our lake and then another 10 to where we ride.

Last weekend my boat over heated while driven back home. It didn't over heat until we were half way into the salad bowl. I shut it down, let it cool off and drove back slowly. No issues at all. I called my dealer and asked what it could be and he said maybe just excess weed on the prop.

Today we went out again, drove all the way to our spot, travelling between 10mph and 20mph. No issues and the temp stayed at 160. As soon as I opened it up to 30mph it slowly heated up and I shut it down. We travelled home at 10-15 mph and again no heat issues.

I called three of the master craft dealers in the area and they all had different answers.
- weeds in the impeller
- weeds in the transmission cooling unit
- your boat wants you to have a newer model.... I kind of liked this answer.

So, I finally figured out where the impeller is.... what brain trust put it there?

So, is the first picture actually the impeller housing?

In the second pic, what is the white housing? Is it a filter?

[Mastar]

Sounds like you have a clog at the trans cooler, or a bad impeller.
The first pic is impeller housing. If you keep following that water intake line you will come to the trans cooler. Disconnect on the side closest to the impeller and pull out any weeds. If there is nothing there you may have a clog somewhere else or a bad impeller.

The second pic is a check valve for something I'm not sure what.
Do yourself a favor and install an inline strainer to prevent future clogs.

[blackhawk]

As Mastar said, the white housing is a check valve. The check valve is part of your ballast system and won't affect your engine overheating. If you've never replaced your impeller you definitely need to do that. For most, replacing the raw water impeller is annual maintenance.

[JagNL]

Also when you've got this figured out add (or have the dealership add) a sea strainer to filter the water. Then you only have to check that and empty it if you have problems going forward.

[Charles martel]

The dealer winterized the boat every year. I will ask going forward that it's part of the job.