Engine Overheat

[Curious]

So this summer I was running pretty shallow in heavy eel grass and got a bunch wrapped around the lower unit, blocking the cooling intake.  It happens occasionally around here.  The overheat alarm went off, I immediately shut the engine off, inspected it, discovered the problem and cleared the grass off the lower unit.  My question is, should I have started the motor back up right away to allow water flow or let it air cool off?  My instinct is to run cool water through it, regardless of the alarm to cool it down quicker, knowing that I fixed the original problem.  Thoughts?

I ended up letting it cool off for a few minutes then letting it run and it cooled off within a couple of minutes.

PS:  1996 Yamaha 200 Saltwater series.

[Capt. Bob]

If it's running fine now, what you did was exactly right.

I say this because my 91 200 Yam overheated at speed and went into "slow mode". I checked the intakes (no clog) and started it up. After a short time chuggin along I opened it back up and it ran fine. Later that afternoon it did the same thing only this time I let it run and a short time later opened it up again. My problem turned out to be a "poppet valve " failure so water had been flowing at a reduced rate but still flowing. Yours was caused from a blockage, ie little or no flow. Letting the air temp cool it first seems like a logical approach and its running fine so.....

You done good.