Stainless Steel Manifolds and Risers

jfair · **Posted:** Mon Jun 24, 2013 2:39 am

My new Hi-Tek stainless steel manifolds/risers on the Vista 278.

Bliss36 · **Posted:** Mon Jun 24, 2013 5:29 am

Those are awesome!! :shock:

Surface Interval · **Posted:** Mon Jun 24, 2013 10:20 pm

I agree, it looks great. A few more parts like that in the engine compartment and we might start seeing engine covers with windows to show off the toys. Hmmm...tomorrow's "gotta have it" accessory? :wink:

TFD2001 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 25, 2013 6:12 am

jfair wrote:

My new Hi-Tek stainless steel manifolds/risers on the Vista 278.

If you don't mind me asking, how much did that set you back?

jfair · **Posted:** Tue Jun 25, 2013 6:28 am

TFD2001 wrote:

jfair wrote:

My new Hi-Tek stainless steel manifolds/risers on the Vista 278.

If you don't mind me asking, how much did that set you back?

The parts cost $2,500 Australian including freight - the AU dollar is worth 95 cents against the US dollar at the moment, so par is close enough. Genuine Mercruiser parts came out at over $A 2,700.
Prices down here are expensive, more so for boat parts. The stainless steel saved me money over cast iron and should save further money by lasting longer. Possibly give improved mpg too.

jgreve75 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 25, 2013 8:05 am

SHINY!! I'm totally jealous...looks great and I'm assuming being stainless, they should last damn near forever?

ric · **Posted:** Tue Jun 25, 2013 11:54 am

Stainless isn't rust proof, it's rust resistant. In salt they'll easily get double the lifespan of normal manifolds. In fresh water they just might last the life of the boat. You can have normal cast iron manifolds last forever by just getting them ceramic coated. Mercruiser started doing some inside parts of theirs a while ago, but never fully coated them for reasons unknown (they still want repeat customers? lol)

LouC · **Posted:** Wed Jun 26, 2013 6:00 am

In addition to the rust resistant quality of these, the fact that they are all one piece with no joint to leak is even more important. That joint and gasket is the weak point of inboard exhaust. I have the one piece OMC cast iron manifolds and I never had water leak into the cylinders with them.

Graham R · **Posted:** Wed Jun 26, 2013 9:13 am

LouC wrote:

In addition to the rust resistant quality of these, the fact that they are all one piece with no joint to leak is even more important. That joint and gasket is the weak point of inboard exhaust. I have the one piece OMC cast iron manifolds and I never had water leak into the cylinders with them.

I could never figure out why VP persisted in using that wet joint system. They could easily have moved to a dry joint system like Mercruiser adopted some years ago. It just needed a cast in spigot or boss on the riser and a hose from the drain point on the manifold.

Graham R · **Posted:** Wed Jun 26, 2013 9:23 am

LouC wrote:

In addition to the rust resistant quality of these, the fact that they are all one piece with no joint to leak is even more important. .

I looked into getting some of these as well; they get very expensive here by the time import duty, freight, 20% VAT on the cost+ duty+ freight is factored in. If I knew I was keeping our current boat for some time, I would probably still have bought some.

The only concern I had is that they are fabricated, not cast. There might be the possibility of crevice corrosion inside the water jacket if there are any small gaps between adjacent stainless steel parts of the fabrication. ( I have some pretty severe pits on my stainless props from crevice corrosion that originated between the plastic sleeves and the prop bores).

LouC · **Posted:** Wed Jun 26, 2013 5:40 pm

When I eventually re-power my boat with a new engine (GM crate 4.3 V-6) I'd love to have a set of those and they do make them for the V-6. But, I also wondered if I could adapt Merc's dry joint system to my OMC set up. What do you think about that, Graham?

I would just keep buying the OMC OE units but I don't think you can get them anymore. I've had my boat long enough that I'm on the third set of manifolds, I kept the 2nd set I took off at 5 years and did not want to push it but they are probably still good....

Graham R · **Posted:** Thu Jun 27, 2013 3:54 am

LouC wrote:

When I eventually re-power my boat with a new engine (GM crate 4.3 V-6) I'd love to have a set of those and they do make them for the V-6. But, I also wondered if I could adapt Merc's dry joint system to my OMC set up. What do you think about that, Graham?

....

Lou,

I'm certain they'd fit at the cylinder head end. Before I bought any, I'd want to do a lot of measuring to see where the outlet ends compared to where your existing rubber hoses start. Not just fore and aft and height, but side to side as well. The worst case I imagine would be a serious mismatch in the latter dimensions. Mismatches in fore/ aft and height could probably we compensated for fairly easily.

LouC · **Posted:** Thu Jun 27, 2013 5:29 pm

What I was thinking of was finding a local place with a good return policy and just buying one to see how close it is and if it can be made to work. Being in Long Island we have a number of parts warehouses that all sell stuff like that.

Now here is another thought. On the Bayliner board someone figured out how to successfully add closed cooling to an OMC Cobra with a thermostat and manifold design similar to that uses by Volvo. This is another thing I've been thinking of to improve exhaust system lifespan.

MKAZ · **Joined:** Tue Jun 04, 2013 10:57 pm **Posts:** 13

Looking to fit my boat vista 288 with twin merc 5.0L and looking for some feedback on the use of the Stainless manifolds/risers?

www.iFourWinns.com

Stainless Steel Manifolds and Risers

Who is online