Force 150 Exhaust Cover

Is there an easy way to remove the exhaust manifold cover on the Force 150?

Some of the lower bolts are blocked by the lower cowl and I dont see a way to get a wrench or socket in there to remove them.

Re: Force 150 Exhaust Cover

Also I pulled out some of the easily accessible bolts from the exhause manifold cover and water came squirting out of them. Is this normal?

Thanks agin.

Re: Force 150 Exhaust Cover

You have to loosen the 12 or 14 bolts that hold the lower cowl in place and shift it to one side to access the lower exhaust cover bolts. Just be careful not to drop any of the bolts, otherwise you may have to remove the lower leg rear cover to retrieve them. Not a big deal, just another step to do.

There is water that flows in the water jacket under the exhaust cover so I would believe that you may have some water come out when you loosen the bolts on the exhaust cover.

Re: Force 150 Exhaust Cover

So I took off the exhaust cover and this is what I found, it looks like the gasket completely gave out. Would this be causing the water issue in the bottom cylinder?

Can anyone explain how water flows though here (where it should and shouldn't specifically)

I also pulled off the manifold and the gasket behind there looked pretty worn though it took some muscle to pull it off and since the gasket is sticking it ripped apart, that'll be replaced too.

I hope this is it, so far I've replaced the head gasket and had the cylinder head machined back into spec, that didnt fix it. Really hoping replacing the exhaust gaskets will fix the problem.

One last thing, when I put this back together what are the torque specs for the bolts I would imagine about 200 in lbs?

Re: Force 150 Exhaust Cover

Bad gaskets on the exhaust cover and manifold can allow water to leak into the cylinders. Usually the lower cylinders are affected. Gravity causes the water to flow down.

Can't say exactly how/where the water flows in the 5 cylinder blocks. I don't have one in front of me. Generally the water enters the exhaust cover at the bottom and is pumped through the cover and then it is routed to the water jacket that surrounds the cylinders. It then goes through the thermostat and into the head. It flows down the head and is routed to the exhaust tube area in the lower leg where it exits.

Exhaust cover bolts should be torqued to 70 INCH pounds. You can put some anti-seize compound on them to prevent them from corroding and possibly snapping off if you ever have to loosen them again.

Re: Force 150 Exhaust Cover

Thanks, I couldn't find those torque specs anywhere.

I ended up pulling off the exhaust manifold too and the gasket between that and the block looked even worse. I would imagine none of those gaskets have ever been replaced since it took a lot of work (and permatex gasket remover) to scrap all the crap off.

Once I replace all 3 gaskets (Tue/Wed) I'll post again.

Re: Force 150 Exhaust Cover

Good news and bad news,

Good news: The engine fired up on the first go and ran like a champ, no white smoke no weird noises no problems whatsoever. It Idled properly, and I slowly laid on the throttle till I was running full out.

Got back and checked the spark plugs, no water on any of em. Looks like the water in the cylinder issue is solved.

However that being said

Bad news: Turned off the engine to put my hand on the exhaust cover, make sure it wasnt overheating and couldnt get it started again.

The starter spun up then died, and locked into the flywheel. Got that starter off put on a different one and nothing. The solenoid sounds like its clicking but the starter isnt doing anything.

I tried the following:

1. Put jumper cables on the battery then touched the postive to the starter, it spun up like it was supposed to.
2. I put a wrench in between the two posts on the solenoid and got a big spark. Should mean the power cable from battery to solenoid is good.
3. I used a multimeter and the cables show continuity and almost no resistance (.1-.2 ohm)


Bad solenoid maybe?

Re: Force 150 Exhaust Cover

Great news on the water issue. Either bad solenoid, or bad battery cable (not likely since you Ohm'ed them out), or bad battery cable connection. Check the negative cable where it bolts to the block. Also loosen and tighten all the positive cables on the solenoid too.

NOTE: when you put a wrench across the solenoid, you need to pay attention to which terminals you short. There are two large posts and two small ones. One of the small ones has a black wire that goes to ground. If you short any of the "hot" cables to it, you'll get a big spark and nothing out of the starter. You need to short across the cable on the large post that comes from the battery to the post that has the small yellow wire. You will see a spark, but the starter should spin over.

Re: Force 150 Exhaust Cover

Holy crap I feel like an idiot.

So the starter has a positive terminal and is ground through the engine block.

I didn't realize the washer itself was non conductive, so I put the nut > washer> positive cable on the starter resulting in a short. Hence the reason it never started.

Using my meter I could see once I replaced the solenoid that voltage was going to all the right places, however there was a huge drop once the key was turned, not to mention sparking at the ground terminal of the battery. Figued out that the positive cable shouldnt be touching the starter itself (and on closer inspection neither was the power terminal on the starter) and found that non conductive washer. Put that inbetween the starter and the positive cable, problem solved.

In my defence the seloc manual I have doesnt even show that washer, but I should have seen that when I took the motor apart to replace the gaskets.

Engine fires right up now no problems.

Thanks again for all the help pnw. Free beer if your ever in southeastern mn.