www.iFourWinns.com

Well its about a year since I had the blown head gasket issues, the engine is finally back together, with reman heads, all new Fel Pro marine gaskets, and a new Barr Volvo style exhaust ready to go on, just waiting on the Volvo style 90* exhaust pipes to arrive that will adapt the center riser style exhaust to the Cobra Y pipe. It was time consuming but not super difficult. You learn a lot of new little skills and the hardest part is keeping dirt out of the engine and keeping everything organized.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tr23hyy6srwfn ... l.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=4. ... +block.JPG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1yyytu26xgohe ... 1.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/px3e829ygbmoy ... 5.JPG?dl=0

I originally had the OMC bat wing exhausts but these were at the end of their life in salt water (6 seasons) so it was time to upgrade. The only extra expense is the Volvo style 90* exhaust pipes that adapt from the 4" riser hose to the 3.5" Y pipe. On the Cobra it was all 3.5".....

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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

Nice one Lou, good to hear you've made good progress

Thanks for the update, looking good!

_________________
Current:
2000 Sea Ray 380 Sundancer "still Livin the Dream"

Past
2002 268 Vista 5.7 GXI "Livin' the Dream"
1996 Rinker 192 Captiva. "The Simple Life"
1999 Yamaha XLL 1200 Waverunner.
1976 Mercury Marquis tri hull 120 hp

Got the new exhaust installed today, hooked up all the hoses, make sure all the electrical was hooked up and cranked her over. Started right up! Nice smooth mellow idle, normal temp, oil pressure and volts. Been a long time because I did not have as much time to work on it as I'd have liked and some of the things I never did before, took time and getting the right advice to figure out.

A few tips for more commonly done jobs like replacing risers and manifolds:

Before installing the new parts, use a thread chaser on the threads in the cyl heads and in the manifolds for the risers. Also make sure that the new bolts will thread all the way in the block, and manifold for the risers, before starting to install the parts. Don't assume that they will because once in a while one does not or you might not have cleaned out the threads all the way.

Make sure that sealing surfaces are flat and level (less than .002" for manifolds and risers) and they are very clean. Follow the manufacturers instructions for installing riser gaskets to the letter. I used Barr exhaust and their gaskets so I did as their tech guy advised and used Permatex Aviation form-a-gasket on the riser gaskets. I also used it on the manifold bolts and the riser bolts threads to keep them from seizing to make the next replacement easy.
A click torque wrench is a wonderful thing when doing manifolds and risers. After you run the engine the first time, some manufacturers advice re-torqueing the manifold and riser bolts when the engine is still warm. With the click wrench its very easy.

Engine work of this type is not really hard, but it is tedious and you must take your time and get advice when you don't know the best way to do something. The biggest things:
Keeping the parts organized
Keeping dirt out of the engine
Being very careful to not damage sealing surfaces when removing old gaskets.
Learning how to carefully resurface old intake manifolds because the water passages in the front will have corrosion
Making sure that all the threads are clean
Making sure that the bolts will thread all the way in
Following torque specs to the letter

Be patient, most of all that's what I learned!

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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

Great post, glad it all worked out!

I'd hate to find out a bolt won't run all the way with Permatex all over everything. What a mess!

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Glad to hear! Great post, thank you

_________________
Current:
2000 Sea Ray 380 Sundancer "still Livin the Dream"

Past
2002 268 Vista 5.7 GXI "Livin' the Dream"
1996 Rinker 192 Captiva. "The Simple Life"
1999 Yamaha XLL 1200 Waverunner.
1976 Mercury Marquis tri hull 120 hp

lol Mike a little carb cleaner and compressed air and its all clean!
BTW I picked up one of those little hot dog compressors just for parts cleaning, what a nice thing to have! I don't have air tools but picked this up just for cleaning out bolt holes, rebuilding small carbs etc.

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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

Here's a quick vid of the engine up and running for the first time in a looonng time!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/55j6h4dd1u8fv ... 3.MOV?dl=0

_________________
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

GREAT!

Having compressed air can be addictive. I plumbed my compressor in the basement out to a reel in the basement and another reel in the garage, with filters and regulators at both. The garage hose gets used a lot!

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

I have 2 compressors now ; a fault on the first then when I bought the second. I cheaply sorted out the first. I just discovered my next door neighbour can hydrostatically test and certify the tank on the first so I could sell it I suppose. A note to all; drain the compressor tank to get rid of water; if the air is humid water collects in the tank.

A bit like my laptops. The first I5 went into " AAAAAAAAAAAargh" mode; 10X windows recovery attempt didn't work so I bought another.

30 + recover attempts has restored the original.

Congrats! It sounds like it's running perfectly. Looks great too, but I miss the look of the Bat Wings.

Ray

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"Knot Easy" 2000 Horizon 240 Volvo 5.7GS /SX
tow: 2017 Honda PILOT EXL-AWD
prev. boats:
'87 Chaparral 198CXL 4.3 OMC Cobra
'69 Jetstar 16ft Ski Boat, 115hp Yamaha
'68 Aluminum Jon Boat, 3hp Sears
'64 Water Wings

The Bat Wings were a unique look, they are light and compact and easy to install. No riser gasket to leak. These did not look bad inside, but when I took a closer look what I found was, flaking rust way up in the riser section. I wondered if some of this rust could fall down, and wind up passing through the exhaust ports and wind up in a cyl. So I took a small hammer and tapped on the side of the manifold holding it level and sure enough, some rust flakes appeared in the exhaust ports! No way I'd take a chance on these and besides, they were used about 5/6 seasons in salt. So if you want to really be on the safe side, you don't want to go beyond that in salt water regions. The nice thing about doing the conversion, is if I still have this boat when then need to be replaced next, I can use regular Barr replacement manifolds that are not really expensive, they can be had for about 650 for the kit. The last time I bought the OMC one piece units (way back in 2006 I bought an extra set figuring they would be come NLA sooner or later) they were about 410 each.

_________________
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

They sound good. Did any company try casting them in an aluminium alloy; easier by far than cast iron (maybe with a replaceable anode added)?

Not in aluminum but in stainless steel. There is a company in Australia called Hy Tek Marine that makes one piece stainless units for both the V6 and V8s. In fact there was a guy on this board who had time (can't recall his name, deaf---something) on a V8 Volvo/Penta. The issue is that you could go through about 3 sets of cast iron manis/risers for what one set of those cost. But they sure are pretty

_________________
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

Yes, Deafwish has them. Last time I checked, I think they were around $2000/set

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"Knot Easy" 2000 Horizon 240 Volvo 5.7GS /SX
tow: 2017 Honda PILOT EXL-AWD
prev. boats:
'87 Chaparral 198CXL 4.3 OMC Cobra
'69 Jetstar 16ft Ski Boat, 115hp Yamaha
'68 Aluminum Jon Boat, 3hp Sears
'64 Water Wings