UPDATE- Motors out, took about 45-50 mins to have it on the ground, and 15 min of that was removing a stubborn fuel line clamp that was crammed in a tight spot and at the wrong angle for screwdriver lol
Sssooo.....forgot who said it but someone called it earlier in thread.... CORRODED EXHAUST FLANGE!
bottom "ear" corroded where bolt goes through and on the "sealing" side had a corrosion spot.
Wasn't terrible, but plenty enough to make it leak!
So, I don't think you can weld/repair corrosion on cast so I'm in the market for a clean used elbow.
Local boat salvage yard prolly has a bunch I could search through but they don't re-open until Monday.
I think the lower exhaust elbow fits 2.5, 3.0 & 3.7 if I'm not mistaken.
So should be one floating around.
Bad part is, I was SOO ready to slap some fresh seals in and 're-install motor by Monday...looks like it may be Tuesday at earliest now.
Thanks so much for everyone's help and giving me the courage to complete this job.
Pulling motor was simple as all heck. Fuel line, throttle and shift cable, exhaust bellow at riser, unplug main wiring harness, 6 engine mount bolts and I removed power steering pump and laid to the side because lines were old and rusty going into steering cylinder and I knew they'd leak if I touched them. The other side was just rubber hoses that came right off.
So for anyone else daunted by this task, don't be! As long as your handy with a wrench, it's not bad at all.
Best of all, I finally got to get the dirt, rust scales, leaves and oily craps out of the bilge! This was my favorite part lol
Took me an hour+ just cleaning bilge area.
Anyone want to comment, feel free. And if I think of anything else that could help the next guy, I'll post it later. For now, I'll repost update when I find a new/used pipe hopefully Monday. Thanks again to all!
