MIssing riser gasket

[lonewolf41]

Bought a 5.0OSi-E (model 3869270, serial 4012110198) to re-power my boat. While looking it over, it looked like there were no riser gaskets so I took the riser off, and sure enough, no gasket was there. Everything I have read and seen calls for a gasket between the exhaust manifold and riser. Is there some odd reason that this would not have or need riser gaskets? Or were they just lazy or incompetent when reassembling the motor? I can't think of any kind of scenario where you would not want gaskets there.

TIA,
-Keith

 

[bruceb58]

They have to have a gasket. Lucky there is no damage to the engine with it this way.

 

[Silverbullet555]

Current gaskets are metal. Sure one isn't stuck to one of the pieces?

 

[lonewolf41]

I looked closely and there was no gasket stuck to either the riser or manifold. What tipped me off to begin with was I could not see one around the riser bolts and the riser was sitting right on top of the manifold with no space between them It was pretty obvious that there was nothing there, and that was why I disassembled it.

Thanks for verifying. Good to know I am not mistaken...and that I know enough to notice a missing gasket before (hopefully) any damage can occur.

 

[Silverbullet555]

Good job identifying that issue. Reminder to inspect and not assume. Wonder if they broke it down to do some work and then decided to sell.

Either way, you're good to go with new gaskets.

 

[Lou C]

I have heard of people using only the copper based Permatex to seal these joints because some of the gaskets were prone to leaks but certainly its not a normal way of installing a riser gasket.

 

[lonewolf41]

Duplicate

 

[lonewolf41]

I took both risers off and there was not a gasket of any kind...nor was there sealant that I could see. I took some before pictures of the port side. It looked the best of the two. I also have some after pictures of the port parts and starboard manifold. I was able to get them pretty well cleaned up. There are some spots on the manifolds that are still there. They look worse on camera than they feel. I can barely feel them if at all. They mainly show as the rest of the surface is polished. I think with the gaskets and sealant that these should be good to go.

Pretty sad that this is the quality of work you get out of people. This is supposed to be a rebuilt engine...ironically due to water ingestion. That is what I told the guy I bought it from, this was rebuilt due to water ingestion and it was set up to do it again in short order if I hadn't found it. Luckily, it hadn't been run hardly at all since the rebuild. This is just one of a handful of issues that I have had to fix on a "drop-in ready" motor. This is why I hate to have other people work on my stuff.

Thanks for everyone's input.

 

[Silverbullet555]

To clean mine up, I got some 3?4 pieces of plate glass and taped a piece of alimunom angle on one side fornthe handle. Then used spray glue to attach sandpaper to the other side. Wd40 to wet the sandpaper and go to town after plugging holes in riser. Still had a few little dark spots, but the surface was flat and smooth.