Alright so I took my bass boat out this past weekend, drove 40 miles to the closest lake... So after filling up the boat by the boat ramp I noticed that when I turned my key to the on position the temp gauge ran up to H, which it has never done before.. I watched the temp gauge the entire drive there and home and it never went above the middle of gauge.. I read somewhere on here in the past about this happening and I can't find it in the search feature....

So again the temp spiked after shutting down after pulling my boat to the lake... Temp went down after I started it back up.... Any advice on this situation?? Am I going to hurt anything if it happens again?

Thanks..

Somewhat normal. Work the engine hard and get the cast iron and aluminum of the block and head hot and then shut off the engine and that stops the water pump and radiator fan. So the heat transfers to the coolant and raises it's temperature. If you restart soon enough you'll see the high temps until the coolant can pass through the radiator enough times to cool down.

Could always let the engine idle a little bit after pulling out the boat to cool down and equalize the temps.

I went and installed an electric fan in my truck a while back for several reasons and found a bonus. Wired it up to be hot with the key in the ignition "on" position. So now when I shut the engine down I can just leave the ignition in the "on" position and the fan will cycle several times depending on how hot the radiator is. Works great after a long haul and you don't want to sit with the engine running. Not sure if it makes a huge difference, but it might help ya with hauling the boat. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />