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Exhaust Manifold Water Leak


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https://photos.app.goo.gl/3aoDDBKuSKb1zrYe8

Yesterday while taking the boat out, I noticed that there was lot more water in the bilge when I pulled the plug out. We went out to the lake today and we found that the starboard exhaust manifold is leaking water! It's coming out at a pretty fast rate too. What is the proper way to repair this?

I was thinking of putting a little bit of silicone in the hole and covering it with Gorilla tape just to get us through the season. We usually use the boat until late October. Once were done, I was thinking of taking the manifold off and having a welder at work put in a new mnaifold plug like this one:

https://www.bakesonline.com/indmar-etx-manifold-weld-in-plug.html

Do I really need to have all of the plugs replaced and welded in if just this one is leaking? Thanks in advance.

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If one is going the rest are soon to follow.  Best bet is to remove the manifolds and bring it to a weld shop, no need to buy the plugs as a welder can fill the holes with weld.  I had one small leak and upon removing the manifolds I planned to ground out the rest of the plugs.  All I needed to do was touch the non leaking plugs and they broke through.  My welder charged me 2 hours to weld all the holes.  

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When I replaced mine, I did all of them, on both manifolds, using something like these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Dia-Aluminum-Round-Disc-125-1-8-Thick-Lot-of-10/272299872366?hash=item3f6656506e:g:QCEAAOxyY3ZRzm2C

The originals were much thinner, maybe 1/16".  These should last much longer. 

I ground out the originals, then had a local welder weld them in.

Edited by MadMan
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Draining the manifolds, by disconnecting the hose coupler between them at the end of the day, can greatly increase the life of the plugs in the aluminum etx exhaust manifolds.  I've seen guys splice the dripless shaft seal water feed to the manifold drain hose so it will drain on its own ( if the boat has a dripless seal installed).

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2 hours ago, justgary said:

I'm not sure if it's true, but my ski buddy replaced his and was told that the OEM discs are zinc, not aluminum.  As I recall, they just welded them without new discs. 

I've heard that too, but it doesn't seem like a very good idea to weld in a sacrificial anode, kinda hard to replace.

And I suppose you could just weld them up without any discs, but I think you be better off just spending the 10 bucks.

One more thing,  special precautions have to be taken when welding zinc, that produces poison gas.

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The holes in the manifolds are from the casting process, they were not intended to be sacrificial anodes (although there has been a lot of debates on TMC).  If you weld them fully they will last longer then the thin discs will. I agree, JB weld does work well for a temp fix!

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My friend just got his welded two days ago (2005 RLXi).  The welder ground out all the holes and welded in aluminum disks.  Came out great. 

JB Weld seemed good for a temporary fix, but with 18 possible leak points, a new one was always showing up.

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