Leakey exaust header
06-10-2003, 09:44 PM
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Leakey exaust header
Well, i burned out the o-rings in my exaust header (teach me to learn about how its put together before assuming there are no o-rings in it). I took it apart, cleaned all the melted silicon off the header and header pipe. I ordered a bunch of o-rings so that if i had this problem again, it would be easy to fix... but upon putting it together its leaky, dribbles a little into the boat and more into the "dry" exaust.
Most of the time I can tighten it down and get a good seal, but because of the shape of the pipe i have to tighten at least 2 screws then rotate the pipe 90 degress to fit into the boat. It is at this point that it starts to leak. If i leave it in the position I tightened it down at, its not bad... but if i move it a little up/down (not rotating) the seal breaks again. I took some macro pictures, maybe someone can see something I don't know to look for. Click for bigger (these are just easy-on-you thumbnails).
The only thing I see is that it appears to seat with one side a little more to one side than the other (I can see more gasket on one side, and that point moves as i rotate the header pipe). I'm thinking of just ordering either a new header or a new header pipe... could extreme heat of not having it water cooled have warped something i'm just not noticing?
Oh yeah, and am i putting it together right? I'm pretty sure thats how it came off the boat... and there does not appear to be any other way for it to go together either
Most of the time I can tighten it down and get a good seal, but because of the shape of the pipe i have to tighten at least 2 screws then rotate the pipe 90 degress to fit into the boat. It is at this point that it starts to leak. If i leave it in the position I tightened it down at, its not bad... but if i move it a little up/down (not rotating) the seal breaks again. I took some macro pictures, maybe someone can see something I don't know to look for. Click for bigger (these are just easy-on-you thumbnails).
The only thing I see is that it appears to seat with one side a little more to one side than the other (I can see more gasket on one side, and that point moves as i rotate the header pipe). I'm thinking of just ordering either a new header or a new header pipe... could extreme heat of not having it water cooled have warped something i'm just not noticing?
Oh yeah, and am i putting it together right? I'm pretty sure thats how it came off the boat... and there does not appear to be any other way for it to go together either
06-11-2003, 04:13 AM
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Leakey exaust header
Tough one! But Hey, I like a challenge! How about applying a little Hi-temp grease on the O-rings before putting it together? Cranking down the bolts too far may be damaging them also. The O-ring around the flange looks fine but I don't think that the other one is needed unless there is something that I don't see like a groove for it. A gasket could be made in place of that one.
Maybe I hit on something or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about............... It's getting late.
Maybe I hit on something or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about............... It's getting late.
06-11-2003, 04:32 AM
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Leakey exaust header
Thanks for the reply, I will take a picture of the other side of the header and of the empty header, because i am fairly sure that 2 o-rings are required (I know there were two on it). Let me try and describe it.
The exaust header is flat, with a circular hole for the exause to come out of the cylinder. there is a raised border around this hole, about 1mm tall. The exause header screws to this and sandwitches the first o-ring, exaust pipe and second o-ring. the water flows around a groove in the outside exause piece that holds it all together. the two o-rings seal at the exaust pipe's flange and in theory keep the water from flowing into the exause (or out of the header into the boat).
I have a feeling that when the original orings melted, it gunked up or distorted the metal a little bit. It just doesn't seem to fit quite as tightly together anymore. I was thinking of trying a washer or some gasket material to shim it up a little, I believe just a little more pressure would seal it. I tried 3 orings... it was very tight and it ALMOST worked, but it was to tight. when i rotated the pipe into the right position... it cut off flow totally (i was just breathing through it to test).
I've sanded the flange of the pipe to try and smooth it as much as possible, but I just can't get it to seal properly!
Driving me nuts too, because I finally got the water pick-up i was waiting for and I really wanna go for a drive soon. Even have the 2nd water pump installed, hoping that it runs nice and cool now. I am considering just getting it to the point where it doesn't leak water into the boat and just letting it dribble the little bit that it does into the exaust. I only test ran the engine once when it was leaking... it did NOT like to push the water out at an idle... and as the exaust system filled up it would cut off unless i gave it a little gas.
The exaust header is flat, with a circular hole for the exause to come out of the cylinder. there is a raised border around this hole, about 1mm tall. The exause header screws to this and sandwitches the first o-ring, exaust pipe and second o-ring. the water flows around a groove in the outside exause piece that holds it all together. the two o-rings seal at the exaust pipe's flange and in theory keep the water from flowing into the exause (or out of the header into the boat).
I have a feeling that when the original orings melted, it gunked up or distorted the metal a little bit. It just doesn't seem to fit quite as tightly together anymore. I was thinking of trying a washer or some gasket material to shim it up a little, I believe just a little more pressure would seal it. I tried 3 orings... it was very tight and it ALMOST worked, but it was to tight. when i rotated the pipe into the right position... it cut off flow totally (i was just breathing through it to test).
I've sanded the flange of the pipe to try and smooth it as much as possible, but I just can't get it to seal properly!
Driving me nuts too, because I finally got the water pick-up i was waiting for and I really wanna go for a drive soon. Even have the 2nd water pump installed, hoping that it runs nice and cool now. I am considering just getting it to the point where it doesn't leak water into the boat and just letting it dribble the little bit that it does into the exaust. I only test ran the engine once when it was leaking... it did NOT like to push the water out at an idle... and as the exaust system filled up it would cut off unless i gave it a little gas.
06-12-2003, 01:47 AM
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Leakey exaust header
it turns out that if i just put the orings in w/o the pipe... it seals up just fine. so i guess that means i need to make sure the pipe is a tad flatter and seals better.
06-13-2003, 06:10 AM
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Leakey exaust header
I still need a little help, if you look at my current exaust pipe (click and do it twice to get to the HUGE image), you can see how... bad it looks at the flange. If I were to order a new exause header, it would be from rocket city racing or marine specialists... Does anyone have any opinion on replacing it with an identical header vs. a wet exaust header that would not have those two orings? You can see it on the second picture, bottom right of the image. Of course, I don't think you can read the thumbnail
What about machine shops, could they duplicate the flange and bends for a reasonable price do you think? The only dry option I have seen that would work is #3 in the 3rd image (from rocketcityracing.com). I would probably have to cut some of the end off to make it fit right, but I can't see any exact measurements either.
What about machine shops, could they duplicate the flange and bends for a reasonable price do you think? The only dry option I have seen that would work is #3 in the 3rd image (from rocketcityracing.com). I would probably have to cut some of the end off to make it fit right, but I can't see any exact measurements either.
