99 air nautique overheating

I have a 99 air nautique and since i have had it winterized last season i have noticed that it smokes alot when i am accelerating .. it always had a little steam when we would take off but now its alot.. its not like smoke that stays in the air but just like alot of steam and when its idling it smokes like that too. Well the other day when i was out and at WOT it would climb well over 200 degrees but when i would go back to idling it would drop back to 160-170.. So i popped the engine cover( i have a PCM 351 not the GT-40 just the carburated one) and i noticed a bolt laying on the valve cover and it is like an inch and half long and 3/4 inch thick and it has a hex head and it has teflon tape at the very top of the threads but i cant find where it goes and want to know why it is not on my motor.. this place i got it winterized never did me wrong but i figured at least if it was already there they would have said something ya know. When i went to pick it up they only had one drain plug in a paper envelope and i think i have more than one but i am not to sure about that hence why i paid to get it winterized. So any help would be greatly appreciated since i am so tryin to get my boat out to the lake THIS WEEKEND..

replace your impeller.

try and figure out where the bolt goes. It may be the bolts on the back of your exhaust riser to drain water for the winter ( freeze plugs)

either the impeller or check your strainer...sometimes places forget to drain them when they winterize and if its cracked at all or gets an airleak it will overheat....you dont need this part at all, just pull it out and run the hose from intake to impeller housing.

Hey Brad, I have no idea where the bolt would be from...but it does sound like you are not getting enough water thru your boat.

Start at the intake on the bottom of the boat...plugged, blocked obstructed? Next make sure there is a rubber seal in the clear strainer cup that filters your incoming water (or that the cup is not cracked and leaking air into the cooling system). Next check the transmission cooler to make sure nothing is obstructing it. Make sure you have a good impellor and that the pump is not leaking. Also check to make sure old impellor bits/blades (from a previus impellor failure)are not lodged in the pump or thermostat housing or in the hose between the pump and trans cooler. Check your exhaust to make sure lack of water has not damaged the muffler or caused the exhaust hoses to collapse or obstruct flow from the riser to the muffler. Last make sure the thermostat is good...it should be a 142 degree stat to keep the boat about 170-180 degrees all the time.

winterizing does not equal regular maintenance. Go buy an impeller while you still can. that's really all you need.

loose bolt> eh? idk. look around for a threaded hole with nothing in it. Find out what size the bolt is. anything other than 1/2" may tell ya where it goes.