What a MESS - Exhaust Elbow Issue

Does anyone know if these are not clamped by design?

This is aft of the alternator on the starboard side of the mercruiser 350.

8A0D64D8-8105-4AA6-A177-A05C9E7DAF77.jpeg
 
Not clamped by design. That's Cool Fuel 3.
 
The fuel line from the CF3 module heading up to the intake manifold has a black rubber sleeve around it.

That may be what you are looking at, I can’t say for sure.
 
The lack of a hose clamp isn't the leak issue, it's the corrosion in the aluminum housing where the o-ring on the plastic hose fitting makes contact.
 
Does anyone know if these are not clamped by design?

This is aft of the alternator on the starboard side of the mercruiser 350.

View attachment 70639
As scofflaw indicated, the raw water intake and return hoses on the original Cool Fuel Gen 3 design are not clamped—but factory press-fit. The bigger concern is the overall design issue with the hose attachment scheme that unit uses. It has since been redesigned to use two standard plastic barb fittings that are threaded into the cooler housing and secured with standard hose clamps.

Worse than this hose design issue is the fact that the internals of the cooler typically suffer from paint delamination (post-filter) and end up clogging the fuel regulator, damaging injectors, or both. I just replaced one of my CF3 modules due to paint issues—you can find the recent thread and see pics of what’s likely going to occur.

Hope this helps—
 
As scofflaw indicated, the raw water intake and return hoses on the original Cool Fuel Gen 3 design are not clamped—but factory press-fit. The bigger concern is the overall design issue with the hose attachment scheme that unit uses. It has since been redesigned to use two standard plastic barb fittings that are threaded into the cooler housing and secured with standard hose clamps.

Worse than this hose design issue is the fact that the internals of the cooler typically suffer from paint delamination (post-filter) and end up clogging the fuel regulator, damaging injectors, or both. I just replaced one of my CF3 modules due to paint issues—you can find the recent thread and see pics of what’s likely going to occur.

Hope this helps—

TY stephenm27 - After how many hours on your 350 MAG's?
 
TY stephenm27 - After how many hours on your 350 MAG's?

Total hours on the engines is approx 340 currently. But on the fuel cooler with the delamination, somewhat less than that as it was already of the newer design which means it wasn't original to the boat (2009 model year). I purchased it from original owner in early 2016 w/ approx 280 hours.

Some CF3 modules appear to never have problems while many others do. You can buy just the lower housing to get the new raw-water cooling hose design. However, in my case, paint delamination was not in the housing, but the lid that holds the pumps and regulator. That can be bought separately as well if you determine you have paint issues. I bought the entire module to minimize downtime during the season. You can also bead-blast the cover as scoflaw did (pics in the other thread).
 
Is this rust cosmetic or could be an issue in the future? This is from the water leaking and dripping down the exhaust. Of course it is fixed now but I am wondering if they need to replace these components...
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