jet boat water temp

[lineman661]

Killing me in Bakersfield. If your boat has a jet on it, you cant take it anywere here, have a 71 stinger, 454 chevy, temp guage doesnt even move, do I close the inlet valve a little ??? at idle it steams a little out the headers, not sure what advice to take, let it run cold, put a thremostat in it? restrict the water flow a little?

[Kings Marine nz]

Mate - you havent given us much info on your engine/water hose system
have you got water jacketed exhaust manifolds ?? if you are - are they partially blocked ??
from the water pickup where does the piping/water flow go around the engine ?
are you using the std Chev water circ pump ?

Yes you should have thermostat in the engine (normally for boats 160' F), and no never restrict the water flow to the engine, when the engine builds up heat and needs additional water flow to keep cool you need reserve water flow to acheive this.

[Propster]

Jet boats do not generally run thermostats. They seem too cool when running normally, however, they are not running a pressurized cooling system. If you had a thermostat on an unpressurized (closed) cooling system, they would overheat in a hurry if held wide open for any length of time.

Typically, the jetters run valves for the inlet and outlet lines to the motor to regulate temperature. Go to the jet boat forum for the correct water line routing and tips for regulating temperature.