New Manifolds and Risers

dwjr · **Joined:** Thu May 31, 2012 12:37 pm **Posts:** 2

It is time to change my manifolds and risers. I have a 5.7GXI Volvo Penta engine. I priced Volvo Penta manifolds and risers (ouch) and other brands which are less expensive. Has anybody had good experience with Performance Product Technologies exhaust parts or GLM? Should I just bite the bullet and buy the Volvo parts? Thanks for your input!

ric · **Posted:** Thu May 31, 2012 1:01 pm

dwjr wrote:

It is time to change my manifolds and risers. I have a 5.7GXI Volvo Penta engine. I priced Volvo Penta manifolds and risers (ouch) and other brands which are less expensive. Has anybody had good experience with Performance Product Technologies exhaust parts or GLM? Should I just bite the bullet and buy the Volvo parts? Thanks for your input!

Cast iron is cast iron. I know PPT/GLM also sell SS and Aluminum ones now. Could probably get stainless for the price of crap iron VP ones.

blue dragon · **Joined:** Tue Jul 12, 2011 5:01 pm **Posts:** 792

How often are you required to change the manifolds and risers.

Cap'n Morgan · **Posted:** Thu May 31, 2012 1:34 pm

blue dragon wrote:

How often are you required to change the manifolds and risers.

it depends on where you boat. In saltwater, it can be as often as every 3 to 5 years. In freshwater, they may
last for 15 years plus.

ric · **Posted:** Thu May 31, 2012 1:36 pm

My boat is a 2000 and AFAIK it's still on the original iron (fresh only). The outside is still nice and painted no flaking and temp is a solid 170 even cruising at 4000rpms.

dwjr · **Joined:** Thu May 31, 2012 12:37 pm **Posts:** 2

70% salt water and 30% fresh water. My engine is a 2004 and this will be my first new set. (I have check my manifolds and risers at the beginning of the season for the bast 4 years). It is now time to get them replaced. I gut tells me to buy the Volvo manifolds and risers.

gregs · **Posted:** Thu May 31, 2012 2:38 pm

CMI makes some lovely stainless headers for SBC.

LouC · **Posted:** Thu May 31, 2012 3:05 pm

OSCO and BARR are two good aftermarket brands. I have heard that GLM had some issues with the machining on the gasket surface and than can cause water leaks at the manifold/riser gasket which can let water in the engine.
I have found that the outlets of the risers start clogging here in salt at about 4-5 years. The gasket sealing surface can corrode which will cause a water leak as noted above. And the water passage in the manifold can corrode through and also cause a water leak into the engine. So checking every 4 years is very good maintenance practice. Also get an IR temp gun and take temps of the risers and manifolds both at idle and after running on plane. If you keep track starting when they are new you will know if they are starting to clog by the increase in temps.

I have the one piece 'batwing' manifolds OMC used on the V-6s for about 5 years. They are not available any longer but they have one really good feature, no manifold/riser gasket to leak. I have 2 sets, ran one 5 seasons and put on the new set, the original one started clogging but I was able to unclog it easily and can put them back on after the new set has about 5 seasons on it.

One thing I do is fill the manifolds with the best -100 no tox antifreeze when I winterize, it has corrosion inhibitors in it and keeps out the moisture, which reduces corrosion.

Sanmiam · **Joined:** Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:05 pm **Posts:** 84

Just did this before the season. Grabbed a kit from ebasicpower - cost about $550 shipped to my door. Supposedly OSCO, but as it turned out they shipped OSCO manifolds with BARR risers - whatever. The kit came with an upgraded gasket for between the riser an manifold as well which I was pleasantly surprised by (the grey thick stuff rather than the cheapie green paper stuff)

Install was a breeze. The toughest part was cleaning the mating surfaces. Both the manifolds and risers had been painted on all mating surfaces and I (of course) did not have my grinder with wire wheel so it took a good 40 minutes to get all the paint off with a scraper, then another 40 to get the gasket material off the block.

Both manufacturers are only primed and not painted so if you want that nice fresh-n-clean look in your engine compartment you will have to run out to your local auto parts store and get some 500deg engine paint. Personally, I am more concerned about how it runs then looks so didn't bother with this step

All said, the entire process was quite painless and took about 3 hours including the scraping.

I would definitely stay away from GLM. I read too many horror stories when researching what brand to buy - and for less then $100 more you can get something from a brand made in America that doesn't seem to have the fitment issues of GLM.

ric · **Posted:** Fri Jun 01, 2012 7:31 am

If you guys really want to make your manifolds last forever, look into having them ceramic coated inside and out. If they're prepped correctly they'll last a lifetime even in salt.

Graham R · **Posted:** Fri Jun 01, 2012 10:13 am

...............or fit and use the Neutrasalt system; my manifolds and risers are now on their 8th season in salt water; I took the risers off last Winter, very little corrosion in either the manifolds or risers.

If you are considering non Volvo Penta risers, ou need to be aware the later VP risers have overheat temperature sensors and that to retain that function, the risers will need appropriately tapped holes.

Borchik · **Posted:** Fri Jun 01, 2012 11:14 am

Graham, not to hijack this thread, but I was curious to how well the Neutrasalt worked, as I work on mainly freshwater stuff. How often do you have to service the system? That is the only VP system that I never went to school for.

LouC · **Posted:** Fri Jun 01, 2012 3:23 pm

Well if you're getting 8 seasons plus in salt with the Neutra Salt system, that's very good. For the manifolds, the only thing better would be if you could add full closed cooling as opposed to a half system. I'd be interested if such a system could be retrofitted to boats that did not come with Volvo drives. The exhaust system is the Achille's Heel of I/Os and inboards. Even outboards can have corrosion in the exhaust system but it seems to be less frequent and take longer to corrode through.

Graham R · **Posted:** Sat Jun 02, 2012 1:00 pm

Borchik wrote:

Graham, not to hijack this thread, but I was curious to how well the Neutrasalt worked, as I work on mainly freshwater stuff. How often do you have to service the system? That is the only VP system that I never went to school for.

Brian,

In theory, it doesn't need servicing; just filling up with the solution.

It's basically a reservoir, a solenoid operated valve, a filter and a T piece that fits into the water inlet just before the power steering cooler.

In practice, I've found it does need some attention.

On my first boat, the solenoid valve leaked and dumped all the solution when the boat was in my drive; expensive waste.

If left unused for a while, "things" like to grow in the solution, resulting in a black sludge that blocks the reseroir outlet, filter and maybe the solenoid valve. The filter and solenoid valve cannot be stripped down. The sludge can be filtered out, but I suspect the bugs are still in there.

Mine is modified:

An isolation ball valve before the filter and solenoid valve; a positive shut off in case the solenoid valve leaks. Plus, if there is an issue the reservoir can be removed without losing much solution.

The filter replaced with one of those glass bodied ones used for outboard fuel lines; allows a visual check of whether it is blocked (plus a pack of 3 replaceable filters is cheap).

I put ca 1% of regular disinfectant ( not bleach, Chlorox etc) into each fill up, it seems to keep the bugs and sludge at bay

taz42169 · **Posted:** Sat Jun 02, 2012 7:29 pm

Did risers and manifolds this year, first time. Wouldn't have done it but the gaskets started to fail. About four hours total including having to scrape off the old gaskets...

www.iFourWinns.com

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