We were warned by the mechanic in galesville, that our exhaust riser needed to be "kept an eye on". It was visibly corroded, and once we ran the boat underway, we could see we had a leak. Further investigation showed that the entire 14' piece of hose connecting the muffler to the transom consisted of three pieces, two splices, and one section of fuel fill hose which was de-laminating. Leaks were everywhere.
Thank goodness for a working automatic bilge pump!
upon attempted removal of the hose from the riser, the pipe fittings broke off! The exhaust flange is designed so the nuts are difficult to remove without rounding them off, so we removed the entire exhaust manifold, which was the easy way. Now the flange could be cleaned up and old pipe removed. The galvanized pipe was replaced with Stainless which should enjoy a long life now that the boat is in fresh water.
of course, I had to clean up the manifold and give it a fresh coat of paint. Probably the best looking part of the boat right now.
in the picture, you can see the custom made nuts on the flange that will make future removal much easier.
So if you see the boat on Lake Erie, you can point and say " hey that's the boat with thr custom nuts!"