Sucked up weeds, overheated, issues starting

[Alolsen2012]

2005 211 with Excalibur 330

Today I was out on a new lake that had lots of weeds. I went ahead and filled bags to start surfing and I went first behind boat immediately once I was up I noticed that motor was louder than normal and the exhaust also smelled funny (burning oil?). After about two minutes I decided to stop and check out what was happening. I went ahead and killed the motor and open the engine hatch and noticed that immediately after stopping the engine, the piping, connecting the manifolds to the muffler started pulling vacuum and collapsing but then shortly after It went back to normal shape. Checked, sea strainer and noticed it was very full of weeds so I went head and emptied it . After this I went ahead and tried to start the motor again and the starter Went for a second and then died on us. Thinking it is it could either be a coincidence or possibly a symptom of the motor overheating. Not exactly sure, but I will say the starter has been giving us issues recently. A month ago it did the same thing minus the overheating, which was then fixed by banging it on it a few times with a hammer. Once the starter died on us today after the overheating, I got it to turn over a few times by banging on it with a hammer again but not enough to start it so I went ahead and ordered a new starter and I will install it later this week when I get it. Wanted to see if anyone’s experienced anything similar where the motor runs dry for a few minutes at least I’m assuming this is what happened since it was louder (no water in exhaust?) and strainer was very full. Once I replace the starter, should I be good to try it out or is there anything else I should check before attempting to start the motor?

Would normally never think that it’s just the starter broken based off the other events but like I said we have been having issues last month with current starter so maybe the heat was enough to finish it off.

kinda hard to explain but let me know if I need to be any more clear on anything thanks.

[shag]

I would say the cooling system needs a thorough inspection, all the way to the transmission strainer if it has one. I have even seen weeds hanging out of the intake under the hull before. Replace the impeller every year, and check the strainer every time you go out. Also, be sure you get a 'marine' rated starter... You surely do not want sparks in your bilge. IMO, older motors like the 351W can take overheats fairly well and be fine.. I am not sure about newer motors getting really overheated... What was the temperature gauge at? Really get that cooling system checked.

[Scooter G]

You may be in luck with the strainer, and nothing tangible made it past that point. I would probably follow shag's advice, pull hoses and also inspect the impeller, and possibly run a flush with a garden hose. Before I went to that extreme, run a fake a lake and check that you have good flow out the exhaust, I would still inspect the impeller.
We sucked some gnarly weed debris boarding on a river in the Supra, didn't have a strainer (yet). We were way up the river and the chances of seeing another boat was slim. It was an achored hour or so pulling everything apart to get it cleared out. Someone even managed to knock the tool bag into the water of zero visabilty, from bad to worse, retreived most everything back by dive and feel, lol. Engine was fine, but it did go into limp mode twice before we determined there was an issue.