So I have an 06 496 HO and we boat in reservoir lakes. They are usually dirty like rivers and we beach the boat sometimes also. I have always wondered about sea strainers and if they would save impellers, keep stuff from our dirty lakes from accumulating in my block or hoses. I don't know much about them but common sense tell me a filter for the lake water would be good. thoughts?

I boat on the Missouri river, always getting silt build up in the block. My then new 496 mags started running warm then 1 started overheating under load. I took it to the shop 3 times & they couldn't seem to figure it out. No problem with pumps but they kept replacing the pump under warranty & saying it was fixed. After being extremely frustrated I backflushed the cooling system, found a few pieces of wood partially plugging the oil cooler, problem fixed. Installed strainers & now I can see water flow, clean junk out, & have not had a problem since. As far as silt build up your probably not going to find a filter to cure that but the strainers do add some protection. I won't run without them again.