Barr Exhausts Manifolds and Risers/Elbows

I put Barr risers on 2 years ago. The risers on then were OEM form 2013. They looked brand new; but when the mating face was hit lightly with a hammer it was soft and flaked off. So far Barr are not leaking and I do not use any antifreeze.
They had slightly different hole pattern on the discharge for cooling the exhaust system and there was no brass 1/4" plug on top that allowed you to check if you had any liquid in the bottom of the manifold. Price wise there was not much different. They are supposed to be made in USA that is why I got them.
 
After about 5 years, I checked the risers on my 390EC with 7.4 Mercs only to find both risers and both manifolds had seawater pooling in the passages. Obviously, I was lucky and caught it just in time. I did what everyone does, started shopping for replacements. Barr had the best price and best warranty so I ordered a complete set of exhaust castings for both engines.

They arrived in about 2 weeks and we set about cleaning up the heads and replacing manifolds, risers and the thermostat housing.....this was in April. Having almost had to re-power both sides, I decided "never again" and pulled the risers off at the end of June only to find seawater in the manifold passages and drip lines from the risers down into the manifolds.

We pulled all the risers and manifolds off and boxed them up and sent them back to Barr for replscement under their warranty. At that point, I learned that they wouldn't talk to me, but insisted that the "marine service center" call them for information. Luckily, I had ordered the Barr parts thru the parts department at our marina/Sea Ray dealer. The report back from Barr was "We received your manifolds and risers, and we are sending them out to a metals lab for examination. Expect a report on warranty coverage, if there is any, in 8-12 weeks.".......like salt water pooling in the manifold and drip lines in the risers needed to be confirmed by a metalurgist.

Both of our kids were home from college for the summer and working in Florida. I was not about to lose the summer, probably one of the last with our kids at home, waiting on Barr. I immediately ordered new OEM manifolds and risers from Mercruiser and we had the boat back in service in 3 days and enjoyed the rest of the summer on the water.

The marina received a check from Barr in October (roughly 20 weeks) for a depreciated amount in payment for the warranty claim. They paid us 50% of the original cost of the Barr parts, and we got only 3 months service out of Barr parts that were supposed to be full warrantied.

Summary: Manifold and riser comparison isn't just about the cost of the parts. Consider warranty performance and customer service as well. As it is, my Barr experience just cost me 50% of the original cost and a couple of weeks down time, but had I not been helped by my local dealer and been able to buy $6500 worth of Mercruiser OEM castings to keep the boat running, we could have very easily lost the summer (1/2 a year!) on the water with our family.......and I'm discounting the cost of re-powering the boat if I had not caught the Barr manifold/riser failure when I did. BE CAREFUL with aftermarket exhaust parts and ask all the questions.
 
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fwebster said:
After about 5 years, I checked the risers on my 390EC with 7.4 Mercs only to find both risers and both manifolds had seawater pooling in the passages. Obviously, I was lucky and caught it just in time. I did what everyone does, started shopping for replacements. Barr had the best price and best warranty so I ordered a complete set of exhaust castings for both engines.

They arrived in about 2 weeks and we set about cleaning up the heads and replacing manifolds, risers and the thermostat housing.....this was in April. Having almost had to re-power both sides, I decided "never again" and pulled the risers off at the end of June only to find seawater in the manifold passages and drip lines from the risers down into the manifolds.

We pulled all the risers and manifolds off and boxed them up and sent them back to Barr for replscement under their warranty. At that point, I learned that they wouldn't talk to me, but insisted that the "marine service center" call them for information. Luckily, I had ordered the Barr parts thru the parts department at our marina/Sea Ray dealer. The report back from Barr was "We received your manifolds and risers, and we are sending them out to a metals lab for examination. Expect a report on warranty coverage, if there is any, in 8-12 weeks.".......like salt water pooling in the manifold and drip lines in the risers needed to be confirmed by a metalurgist.

Both of our kids were home from college for the summer and working in Florida. I was not about to lose the summer, probably one of the last with our kids at home, waiting on Barr. I immediately ordered new OEM manifolds and risers from Mercruiser and we had the boat back in service in 3 days and enjoyed the rest of the summer on the water.

The marina received a check from Barr in October (roughly 20 weeks) for a depreciated amount in payment for the warranty claim. They paid us 50% of the original cost of the Barr parts, and we got only 3 months service out of Barr parts that were supposed to be full warrantied.

Summary: Manifold and riser comparison isn't just about the cost of the parts. Consider warranty performance and customer service as well. As it is, my Barr experience just cost me 50% of the original cost and a couple of weeks down time, but had I not been helped by my local dealer and been able to buy $6500 worth of Mercruiser OEM castings to keep the boat running, we could have very easily lost the summer (1/2 a year!) on the water with our family.......and I'm discounting the cost of re-powering the boat if I had not caught the Barr manifold/riser failure when I did. BE CAREFUL with aftermarket exhaust parts and ask all the questions.
Click to expand...
Did Barr ever tell you why they failed. IE bad cast.................
 
fwebster said:
After about 5 years, I checked the risers on my 390EC with 7.4 Mercs only to find both risers and both manifolds had seawater pooling in the passages. Obviously, I was lucky and caught it just in time. I did what everyone does, started shopping for replacements. Barr had the best price and best warranty so I ordered a complete set of exhaust castings for both engines.

They arrived in about 2 weeks and we set about cleaning up the heads and replacing manifolds, risers and the thermostat housing.....this was in April. Having almost had to re-power both sides, I decided "never again" and pulled the risers off at the end of June only to find seawater in the manifold passages and drip lines from the risers down into the manifolds.

We pulled all the risers and manifolds off and boxed them up and sent them back to Barr for replscement under their warranty. At that point, I learned that they wouldn't talk to me, but insisted that the "marine service center" call them for information. Luckily, I had ordered the Barr parts thru the parts department at our marina/Sea Ray dealer. The report back from Barr was "We received your manifolds and risers, and we are sending them out to a metals lab for examination. Expect a report on warranty coverage, if there is any, in 8-12 weeks.".......like salt water pooling in the manifold and drip lines in the risers needed to be confirmed by a metalurgist.

Both of our kids were home from college for the summer and working in Florida. I was not about to lose the summer, probably one of the last with our kids at home, waiting on Barr. I immediately ordered new OEM manifolds and risers from Mercruiser and we had the boat back in service in 3 days and enjoyed the rest of the summer on the water.

The marina received a check from Barr in October (roughly 20 weeks) for a depreciated amount in payment for the warranty claim. They paid us 50% of the original cost of the Barr parts, and we got only 3 months service out of Barr parts that were supposed to be full warrantied.

Summary: Manifold and riser comparison isn't just about the cost of the parts. Consider warranty performance and customer service as well. As it is, my Barr experience just cost me 50% of the original cost and a couple of weeks down time, but had I not been helped by my local dealer and been able to buy $6500 worth of Mercruiser OEM castings to keep the boat running, we could have very easily lost the summer (1/2 a year!) on the water with our family.......and I'm discounting the cost of re-powering the boat if I had not caught the Barr manifold/riser failure when I did. BE CAREFUL with aftermarket exhaust parts and ask all the questions.
Click to expand...

$6500. even at 2 engines $3250 per. I see Amazon OEM mercruiser 7.4 mans & risers, gaskets bolts, etc for $725 both sides. How you pay $3250?
 
Pirate Lady said:
$6500. even at 2 engines $3250 per. I see Amazon OEM mercruiser 7.4 mans & risers, gaskets bolts, etc for $725 both sides. How you pay $3250?
Click to expand...


If you are checking Amazon.....make sure the components are actually made by Mercruiser. There is at least one "manufacturer" that sells systems for $703 per engine with free shipping that is a knockoff.

The going rate for a 7.4 Mercruiser Engine for Mercruiser replacement components is around $850 plus shipping or roughly $1,000 per engine. For example:

https://www.perfprotech.com/mercrui...-1984-2001-ek-merc-bv8-oem-ns/product/1631012

Different systems such as those using dry joints can double the price per engine.

I'm not sure what Frank had done but he was financially into two complete Barr systems plus installation and two complete Mercruiser Systems plus installation. It isn't hard to see that adding up pretty quickly.

Mercruiser isn't perfect but given the small price difference and the risk of a leaking manifold/gasket....it isn't worth it to pick something else.....at least for me.

I have been in the Marine business a long time......you lose money pretty fast when an engine seizes due to a newly installed exhaust manifold......especially if you installed it. All you hear from the exhaust manifold manufacturer is crickets when that happens.
 
Pirate Lady said:
$6500. even at 2 engines $3250 per. I see Amazon OEM mercruiser 7.4 mans & risers, gaskets bolts, etc for $725 both sides. How you pay $3250?
Click to expand...


I posted my experience with Barr products as a heads up for the original poster to encourage him to pay attention to more than the advertised price of aftermarket castings.

If anyone else wants to second guess a decision I made more than 20 years ago, please bear in mind that Mercruiserparts were not sold by every vendor, big box store and online mass marketer the world back then. Mercruiser dealers were given delivery preference over everyone else, plus, the margin structure was a lot different than it is today where you can get Mercruiser OEM parts from the 10 pages of Google hits that are returned when you query "Mercruiser OEM parts".

Further, if you read my post, you will see that my decision back then was driven by more than how much a set of manifolds and risers cost. Replacing the exhaust system as we did allowed us to continue using the 390EC nearly every day. It didn't get dark until late and we saw a lot of sunsets over the Gulf. There is something special about a bucket of boiled shrimp when you anchor off the beach and swim in to a beachside restaurant to pick up an order of fresh boiled shrimp then peel and eat them with your family as you watch the sun set over the Gulf.
 
fwebster said:
I posted my experience with Barr products as a heads up for the original poster to encourage him to pay attention to more than the advertised price of aftermarket castings.

If anyone else wants to second guess a decision I made more than 20 years ago, please bear in mind that Mercruiserparts were not sold by every vendor, big box store and online mass marketer the world back then. Mercruiser dealers were given delivery preference over everyone else, plus, the margin structure was a lot different than it is today where you can get Mercruiser OEM parts from the 10 pages of Google hits that are returned when you query "Mercruiser OEM parts".

Further, if you read my post, you will see that my decision back then was driven by more than how much a set of manifolds and risers cost. Replacing the exhaust system as we did allowed us to continue using the 390EC nearly every day. It didn't get dark until late and we saw a lot of sunsets over the Gulf. There is something special about a bucket of boiled shrimp when you anchor off the beach and swim in to a beachside restaurant to pick up an order of fresh boiled shrimp then peel and eat them with your family as you watch the sun set over the Gulf.
Click to expand...
Which, is the ONLY reason we put up with what we put up with.
 
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