Clear fouled water ports?

In south Louisiana, it is not uncomon for mud/vegitation to foul water intake ports, which of course can quickly damage an engine. The only solution I knew with my 20 hp outboard was to raise the engine and manually clear the ports. Or if that didn't work - detach the intake hose from the engine and blow out the debris.

Recently a car mechanic advised my son in law regarding his 200+ outboard, that when this problem occurs to put the engine in neutral and reve the engine, or maybe he said put it in reverse and reve the engine. (Getting this second hand.) I thought the impeller turned the same way, regardless of the direction of the boat/motor. Is there a solution here somewhere, or is this bum advice and manual clearing is the only solution?

Re: Clear fouled water ports?

The impeller always truns the same way but sometime just shutting the engine of breaks the suction and the debris will fall off, I have had people tell me that shutting the engine off while underway will clean them as the suction is gone and the water action will clear them.

Re: Clear fouled water ports?

Thanks for the suggestion! But, that may be assuming that another engine will keep forward motion. In this case, there is only one engine, and I'm concerned about running it any length of time when water is not being circulated. Still hoping someone can confirm that in some way the ports can be cleared using the throttle.

Re: Clear fouled water ports?

I don't know about mud but when going through thick vegetation the weeds wrap around the leg. Putting the engine in reverse blows the water in the opposite direction and weeds blow off. If they get up inside the water passages I don't think reverse would help.

Re: Clear fouled water ports?

Again, thanks for the responses. Weeds, I agree...however we are talking about mud mixed with decayed vegetation - a tough mixture to dislodge. We encountered this problem this summer, and the only solution I knew was to do as I mentioned earlier - disconnect the water intake hose from the engine and blow through it to dislodge the materials. It took a couple of tries for this to be successful - while my son in law was in the water trying to manually dislodge the clogging materials. I'd love to know if there is someting we could do without going through all of this. However, given the responses so far it appears that no throttle position will address this problem.