exhaust plate removal force 40 to repair water leak

[t-wood]

Hi I have a leak from the exhauset plate gasket. I bought high temp rsv and started to remove the plate and realized the bolts wont back out completely because they hit the lower portion of the cowl. Since i plan to use rsv can i just back the plate out as far as i have room. Then cut out the old gasket and try to apply the sealant. Or do i need to loosen the lower cowl to allow the bolts room to back out completely. I know you guys have run into this and have some tricks for this. Mine is a 97' 40 HP Force. Seems to run good just bottom corner of that gasket leaks water. What would be really great would be to apply that sealant just at that corner but intuition tells me that wont work. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me. Sure do appreciate it. T-wood the carpenter.

[pnwboat]

Your intuition is probably correct. I guess you could just try and dab some sealant on the corner and try it. Just be prepared to do it again. You know that old saying. "How come there's never enough time to do it right the first time, but there's always time to do it over again." I would loosen the lower cowl and get a replacement gasket.

[t-wood]

I drilled holes in the lower cowl to get the bolts out. Turns out that what appears to be the exhaust manifold comes off with the plate. Guess thats why the bolts are so long. I had read a suggestion to drill and plug the cowl to avoid having to remove the power pack. Oh well some rubber plugs will fix that. I am in it now gonna try the rsv. Will let you know how it works. For anyone else who needs to remove the exhaust plate. Looosen all of the bolts and the 1.5" manifold comes off with the plate. But i am just a carpenter so this may only work on a little force outboard.