I don know if it is sad that I do not know this or impressive it took me this long.

I was out the other day in a spot which can be touchy depth wise. I was at just barely above idle speed and managed to bury the motor in the muddy bottom. the second I heard it I cut the motor, just to make sure i did not tear up the prop, motor, or start to pull a mess of mud into the intakes. Anyway I pulled up the motor, and it was covered in a ball of mud. Used the TM to get back into deeper water, dropped the motor down and ran with the TM until I brought it back up without any mud left on it. Then fired it up and got out of there. It felt like it was running rough. Water was still going into the engine and shooting out the side just fine. RPM's seemed fine.

Not sure if I am being paranoid or not. Is there anything special I should check in such a situation to make sure I do not damage or tear up the motor when something like this happens?

What size motor? Does the motor have a overheat alarm?

On my V6, I occaisionally check the cylinder heads with a heat spy gun while running it on the garden hose. I am looking for hot spots which might identify an obstruction. I run in very weedy, muddy, shallow waters in the swamps of south florida.

If your motor does not seem like it is running normally, you should get it checked out.

  It is a 2009 60 hp Mercury OB. I took it for a test..seemed to run perfect. It is a good motor, very quiet, I never really pay a ton of attention to it, so I do not know if my worry about it running "rough" was because I was being extremely anal listening to everything it did after hitting bottom or not.

I gave it a good inspection afterwards, besides a VERY small chip on the paint on the prop there is thing I can visibly see wrong. Intakes are clear (from the outside) and the flow out of the motor is strong and normal.

My main thing is, after I buried it in the bottom, I have no idea what to look for to verify nothing was damaged. I figure:

1. Check for obvious external damage.

2. Verify water flow is going through the engine.

3. Monitor RPM's and make sure they are "normal".

4. Watch motor to verify nothing is leaking from it.

I may have just been extremely lucky up till now but I have never hit bottom at all with any of my boats, I am happy it was just mud and not something that would have hosed my prop.

I would kill for a temp gauge on the dash like my car, would make me feel more comfortable in general. Got to figure, in most cases something wrong in an engine, you are going to see your RPM's mess up, temp mess up, or oil pressure mess up.

I just have no idea what else to check to verify that no damage was done.

I think your biggest concern was whether sand or grit got sucked up into the water pump and possible damage that may have caused.  Doesn't really sound like you've got a problem though. 

Dude, if you could see what I've run my motor through you would die. I've hit everything that can be hit and have run it aground at high speed. It is none the worse for wear. The only thing to watch for is the temp. If there is a concern, drop the lower unit and replace the water pump impeller. Otherwise run it like you stole it. You will be fine.

Yes, its a fact I just went through a total rebuild, but it was from a broken ring, nothing to do with anything like you are going through.

Good luck,

Jack

thanks guys. I really appreciate the feedback.

One that note, do they make a good repair manual for boat engines? I have seen a few online but anything that anyone would recommend? I have the Haynes manuals for each of my vehicles, and they have saved me a mint on repairs. Any specific brand you guys would recommend?

I have used Clymers(sp). manuals when I owned OMC motors. Im not sure if it covers Mercury's.

thanks guys. I really appreciate the feedback.

One that note, do they make a good repair manual for boat engines? I have seen a few online but anything that anyone would recommend? I have the Haynes manuals for each of my vehicles, and they have saved me a mint on repairs. Any specific brand you guys would recommend?

Most dealers stock repair manuels for the motors they sell. You should be able to pick one up there.