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Not sure when it was last changed. I've had it for about a year, but I can contact the original owner and see if he knows. He should, as he was pretty meticulous with maintenance. It's full, and doesn't seem to be leaking anywhere. Does the oil look too dark? Is it easy to change myself? I'll google it to see what the process is.

Looks normal. I can't see the full mark though. When was time impeller changed. When was the oil and the fuel filter changed. If you don't know the answers to these questions you should change them.

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That reservoir looks a little low and a little dark but it’s hard to tell from the pics. I’m not sure it would kick off any alarms though from what I’m seeing. You could add another 1/2”-3/4” of fluid to eliminate that possibility and run her again.

I agree though. Change the outdrive fluid and fill the reservoir to the fill mark if you haven’t done this recently. This is what a good reservoir should look like...
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Your 7.4 should run in the neighborhood of 160-180 degrees. If you’re pushing 175 it could be close to setting an alarm off. It will normally go into limp mode though until the alarm silences. Your risers should be warm to the touch but not so hot that you can’t touch them. Did you check this?

Sometimes the gauges can be a little ambiguous. 175 is close enough to 180 that it’s worth checking and more importantly performing an impeller change.

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Constant beep is for an overheat, check the risers with a IR Thermometer when it’s beeping. Have you changed the sea pump impeller?

Wow, thanks for the input guys! Yes, I agree it's probably time for an oil change, as it's pushing a year, although not too many hours on it since last change. Same with fuel filter and impeller. I agree that's it's time to change those, too. As far as engine temp, it seems to be about the same as it has always run, which seems to be around 170-175. It did seem that the gauge was fluctuating this last time, below 160 and up to 175. Maybe the gauge has an issue, too? Sounds like impeller, oil change, fuel filter change and maybe outdrive lube change are in order.

I'll probably get that work done before I go out again. I do have an IR thermometer that I'll put on the boat now. Seems that risers were too hot to touch when this happened and I shut her down right away all three times that it happened when hearing the constant beep, so maybe that's why it didn't go into "limp" mode. Also, I found out that water temp in the lake was 87 degrees F and air temp was about 105F, so I'm sure that didn't help the cooling effects. And it looks like my "drive shower" has only one hole that sprays directly down on the top of the outdrive, so suspect I'll get one of those Simrek Halo Max units that looks to cool the drive much better.

If it’s over heated that many times I’d do a compression test before I put anymore money into it.

Clean out reservoir bottle for drive
I have found sludge in the bottom of the bottle on other boats I have had
Test for alarm by pushing FLOAT down when bottle is full