Boat overheating

I have a Malibu Wakesetter that started overheating at idle speed yesterday. Once it gets moving it cools off. There was a lot of debri in the water yesterday so I think something is clogged. I will clean out the water intake on the hull today, but is there some other place that can get glogged up?

Check your impellor. If it's all chewed and missing pieces you're gonna need to retreive those peices because they can clog the water jackets and really kill your motor. But, since it cools once you're moving you're probably okay.
But, I bet the impellor is shot.

Chris
No Slip Gator Grip
www.wakejunky.com

There was a small piece of wood in the water intake. Today the temp would vary from 180 to 160. How much temperature variation is normal? (I've never paid that much attention). I still probably need to replace the impellar since it has almost 300 hrs on it.

Ok, so we just replaced an impeller that was missing tons of pieces, and our boat is still overheating, how do you retrieve them?

I'm no expert...but I saw someone change an impellor that blew up and they found a spot down line and removed a hose and put a garden hose in there and flushed it out back up towards the water pump/impellor. Other than that I'm not sure how you would get them out?

If you think you may have sucked up debris from the lake then you should follow the water intake from the thru-hull fitting to the water pump. On the boats I have owned the INTAKE to the water pump first passed through the transmission oil cooler. The one time I sucked up debris, that is where it all got stuck.

If your thermostat is working properly then there should be very little temperature variation. You can get thermostats in a variety of different temperatures, but I would expect a setting of 180. A variation from 180 to 160 suggests to me that your thermostat is not closing all the way (which is a whole lot better than not opening all the way).