www.iFourWinns.com

Here's a good one for you--2001 Vista 328 with twin GSI 280 hp. Volvos of course. Bought the boat this spring. Always has and is a salt water boat with raw water cooling. Giving the motors a good visual inspection last week and the starboard motor had white deposits "blooming" just under the thermostat housing area. Scraped around it a bit and a chunk of the intake manifold came off in my hand--about 2" high by 3" long!! It was just below and between the two bolts that hold the thermostat housing on. Sorry, no photo's, but it was about 1/8" thick--kind of looked like the manifold had "delaminated"--Yet, no water or fuel residue came out, and it's run fine for @ 20 miles since then. The white bloom of fluff would make me think it is salt corrosion. SOOO, for preventative maintenance, I'm in the market for a replacement manifold. The NEW Volvo unit is $900! Yikes!.

Any one heard of this before?
Anyone know of a good source for used one?

I always assumed the inlet manifold was aluminium, as inlet manifolds on European cars have almost all been aluminium since the early 1960's. I never had a reason to scrape the paint off to check that on my VP V8s.

Then, from various posts, I gathered that the inlet manifold on the V6/ V8 engines was cast iron !

Regardless of that, whether it's a cast iron or cast aluminium manifold there must be a much cheaper automotive GM V8 manifold you can use, Volvo won't have commisioned a new casting. I can't tell you which cars or actually trucks used that TBI engine, we don't have them in Europe, but look back about 3-5 years from when your engine was made !

I'd bet that its cast iron as well and I don't think the standard marine Chevy small blocks ever used an aluminum intake. Having said that, its surprising that it rusted through, although not unheard of. I have an old salt motor (at least 15 years worth of salt use) and the intake manifold seems to be fine still. When I've changed the thermostat I have not seen flaking rust inside the intake.

http://www.michiganmotorz.com/1996curre ... 3_237.html

I'd give these people a call and see if they have anything that will fit your engine.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Thanks for the tip on Michigan Motorz. This one is definitely aluminum and it's the same as the port motor, so it is original and not been replaced. The port motor has some flecks of the white bloom but not nearly so bad.
Most of theirs seem to be for a carburetor'd motor where mine is TBI, and I believe has just one large round intake port on top wherethe TBI unit bolts one.
Doug Russell Marine (only a short drive for me) has one but we're still trying to work out if their used one will fit my motor. Apparently the issue is how many bolt holes it has to secure it to the block. Some have 8 like mine--but there are others too.

Luckily I have the winter to try and locate one like it--I don't usually launch here in New England (in the ocean) until about May 1st.

Anyone else know of a good marine salvage company for engine parts? I tried eBay already