Exhaust Manifold Replacement may not be necessary

searay205 said:
Did you read my post PartsVu has your manifolds and they are OEM Mercruiser. Pirate lady prices are pretty close to PartsVu prices. PartVu best price but their search engine sucks. Get the part numbers and then go to partsvu search and you will find them. No taxes if outside of Florida and free shipping (huge on heavy manifolds)

If it make you feel better just a pair of elbows for a 5.0/5.7 cat engine is $1200...
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I did read your post, but (unfortunately for me) they still are super expensive.... The 8.1 manifolds and risers are $3100 per motor with all the gaskets. They list a (single) manifold for $800, but you have to buy two for one motor. Same with the riser (which is also the elbow on this motor), it is listed for about $750. Those prices are for single, they aren't for pairs, so you need to order 4 of each for a twin engine setup. You're talking about $6200 for parts alone, labor is probably 3 hours per motor, so another $1000.

EDIT: the kit in the link above is $630 each, so that at least drops the price to $2500 for all four, then another $635 for each riser... So I'm in it for $5k in parts... Every little bit helps I guess.
 
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Jmac572 said:
I did read your post, but (unfortunately for me) they still are super expensive.... The 8.1 manifolds and risers are $3100 per motor with all the gaskets. They list a (single) manifold for $800, but you have to buy two for one motor. Same with the riser (which is also the elbow on this motor), it is listed for about $750. Those prices are for single, they aren't for pairs, so you need to order 4 of each for a twin engine setup. You're talking about $6200 for parts alone, labor is probably 3 hours per motor, so another $1000.

EDIT: the kit in the link above is $630 each, so that at least drops the price to $2500 for all four, then another $635 for each riser... So I'm in it for $5k in parts... Every little bit helps I guess.
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Do you have the risers? My boat just has manifolds and elbows and the elbows were just on sale for $200/off
 
Jmac572 said:
I did read your post, but (unfortunately for me) they still are super expensive.... The 8.1 manifolds and risers are $3100 per motor with all the gaskets. They list a (single) manifold for $800, but you have to buy two for one motor. Same with the riser (which is also the elbow on this motor), it is listed for about $750. Those prices are for single, they aren't for pairs, so you need to order 4 of each for a twin engine setup. You're talking about $6200 for parts alone, labor is probably 3 hours per motor, so another $1000.

EDIT: the kit in the link above is $630 each, so that at least drops the price to $2500 for all four, then another $635 for each riser... So I'm in it for $5k in parts... Every little bit helps I guess.
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BTW, my parts are 12yrs old and they don’t look bad. They have some build-up on them. Keep in mind I can’t see the water passages, but I’m not planning on replacing these again until at least 8yrs passes.
 
jmauld said:
BTW, my parts are 12yrs old and they don’t look bad. They have some build-up on them. Keep in mind I can’t see the water passages, but I’m not planning on replacing these again until at least 8yrs passes.
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I'm just going to suck it up and replace everything for the assurance that I know nothing will go wrong... I do not have separate risers on my motors, the elbow and riser is the same part. I am probably going to order from PartsVu on Monday.

Where has your boat spent its life? Curious if the region made a difference, my boat was in the water 12 months/ year in the salty Gulf prior to me owning it.
 
Jmac572 said:
I'm just going to suck it up and replace everything for the assurance that I know nothing will go wrong... I do not have separate risers on my motors, the elbow and riser is the same part. I am probably going to order from PartsVu on Monday.

Where has your boat spent its life? Curious if the region made a difference, my boat was in the water 12 months/ year in the salty Gulf prior to me owning it.
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Salt water all of its life. It does have a salt away system built in to it. I also wasn’t going to replace the STainless steel elbows but decided to at the last minute. Now I’ve got a weekend or two of work ahead of me.
 
Jmac572 said:
I'm just going to suck it up and replace everything for the assurance that I know nothing will go wrong... I do not have separate risers on my motors, the elbow and riser is the same part. I am probably going to order from PartsVu on Monday.

Where has your boat spent its life? Curious if the region made a difference, my boat was in the water 12 months/ year in the salty Gulf prior to me owning it.
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Those elbows are stainless steel not cast. Inspect for cracks or leaks and if none they should be good to go.

-Kevin
 
KevinC said:
Those elbows are stainless steel not cast. Inspect for cracks or leaks and if none they should be good to go.

-Kevin
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I am just worried even if they are good to go right now that they won't have much life left in them, being 18 years old and with 850 hours on the motors. I know they're stainless but they must have a life expectancy
 
Were stainless elbows used 18yrs ago. They might’ve already been updated?
 
jmauld said:
Were stainless elbows used 18yrs ago. They might’ve already been updated?
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From my knowledge all of the 8.1's came with stainless elbows, but the early 8.1's had the aluminum manifolds. That being said my boat currently has cast iron manifolds so it is completely possible the manifolds and risers have been replaced at some point as I believe my year had aluminum manifolds, I have tons of paperwork on the boat but I cannot find anything saying they were replaced.
 
Jmac572 said:
From my knowledge all of the 8.1's came with stainless elbows, but the early 8.1's had the aluminum manifolds. That being said my boat currently has cast iron manifolds so it is completely possible the manifolds and risers have been replaced at some point as I believe my year had aluminum manifolds, I have tons of paperwork on the boat but I cannot find anything saying they were replaced.
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With the Hull ID# and the engine serial #'s I'm sure Sea Ray customer service would be able to tell what the boat was equipped with along with providing you with the build sheet if you don't have it.
 
Jmac572 said:
From my knowledge all of the 8.1's came with stainless elbows, but the early 8.1's had the aluminum manifolds. That being said my boat currently has cast iron manifolds so it is completely possible the manifolds and risers have been replaced at some point as I believe my year had aluminum manifolds, I have tons of paperwork on the boat but I cannot find anything saying they were replaced.
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If you have your engine serial number you can search parts on mercruiserparts.com
 
jmauld said:
If you have your engine serial number you can search parts on mercruiserparts.com
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It does show the correct new part number because Mercruiser discontinued the aluminum manifolds back in 2007 I think... I am not sure if the boat originally came with the aluminum manifolds though, if it did then that means they have been replaced at some point. Either way I dont think I'm going to chance it, just gonna suck it up, work some OT, and change them out.
 
For those of you that have changed your manifolds, did you use sealant on the threads like the manual says to? That seems like an odd chemical to put on the threads. I’ve always used anti-seize on manifold bolts, but this is my first time with a marine application.
 
Pirate Lady said:
View attachment 122715
Here’s my invoice from last March. 7.4. These are Mercruiser parts not aftermarket. Look close. $323 each manifold. Risers $195.
Is the 8.1 an exotic block? I thought it is a bored out 7.4.
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Those are not 8.1 parts. The poster above was correct. 8.1 are more then double for each.
 
We did manifolds (originals) back in Nov 2019 @ 975 hours. $2588.00 for the all Merc parts. My Merc Service Mngr said we were just 1 cruise from a potential engine disaster. What made me pull and check was my brother in law's 320 (same year) had a manifold go bad and got extremely lucky. I beginning to have a longer recovery time after coming off plain so pulled mine and sure enough, we were due. Not to bad a job with having the Br 3s.
 
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