hey guys, well after finally getting everything in order I found a crack in my port side manifold today. The crack looks to be about 2-3” long and is weeping drops every couple seconds. It must be freeze damage beacause there was a crack in the block on the same side of the engine from freezing over the winter. I just don’t see how it was missed until today given all of the hours spent working on the engine this year. Possible that it was on the brink of cracking from the freeze and finally gave up today ? For anybody that reads these forums I’ve been on here quite a bit lately with several major problems that have been resolved. Long story short, I want to take the boat out and test out all of the repairs that were made before I drop some big loot on new manifolds and risers. My luck I’ll spend all that money and the damn thing won’t run because of something else. Assuming it was the freeze that caused the crack, is it safe to say the interior of the water jacket is ok for a day ? I know on the block the water jacket was only 1/4” on the outside of the engine. Does anybody know how thick the walls are on either side of a manifold ? If they are the same thickness I’d say it’s likely that the inside was compromised too. I saw some tricks how to pressure test them but replacing the gaskets on reassembly is over $100. It’s a merc 305 with dry joint manifolds on it. The boat sat in saltwater for 2 years and was trailered to fresh water for the beginning of its days. The manifolds are original and from 2006. Boat was hardly used (under 100 hours)in nothing but fresh water until I got it in 2016. Now it has around 250 hours total with 150 in saltwater. Worth the risk for a day of testing ?
