I'm a new owner of a 35 Lightning (2000) with twin EFIs' & Bravos. I am using a nose-cone and it appears to be pumping water fine through the system, but after about 4-5 minutes the water temp gets to high. Water temp is also fine during use on the water - so I'm a bit puzzled - and leads me to believe it is not the impellers.

Secondly, the boat has an internal flush kit? I've gotten mixed responses regarding the use - from, "it's better than a nose-cone but a hassle (since it's not located conveniently)," to, "it's much less effective and typically is only used while the boat is IN the water and WITHOUT running the engines" - - any advice here??

Thx!!

a garden hose can collapse if you rev much higher than idle from the suction pressure of the raw water pump. i assume your hose is on all the way and it's not leaking much on the ground?

internal flush is ok if the boat stays in the water so you can't flush through the drive. you would just shut the valve off to your bravo pickup and hook your garden hose up in the engine compartment to the internal flush. you still run the engine though. you can't flush through your raw water pump without the engine running. if your flush ties in on the discharge side of your raw water pump, you can't run the engines while flushing. you need to be very careful so you don't get water back into the engine cylinders unless your exhaust is fully jacketed.
if your trailering, it's better to hook up on the drive so that gets flushed also.
Fran

excaleagle42 -

Thanks for your reply - - The boat is kept out of the water at a dry stack - - I've tried two different hoses at two different water sources - - thinking either too much or too little pressure may be the problem. These are hoses and water sources that are used by the dry stack to flush engines all day long, so I'm convinced it's my issue...

I run the engines at around 1500 RPMs - perhaps that's creating too much suction?? I will try closer to idle - - Thx again!