www.iFourWinns.com

I have to remove a riser to replace a leaky gasket and I have a few basic questions.

1 - What precautions do I need to take not to break the bolts, do I replace with new bolts upon reinstallation?

2 - Do I replace both sides, or just the leaky one?

3 - Do I need to remove the manifold, or just the riser?

Thanks in Advance.

_________________
2006 300 Sundancer
2007 Trailblazer LT V8
2004 Grand Prix GTP Comp G (For Sale)
Previous Boats:
2006 255 Sundowner 5.7GXI-G
2000 CrownLine 202BR
1994 Baja 180 Islander
1980 Galaxy 18' BR

Not hard to do.

First and most important, remove the drain plug from the exhaust manifold to drain any water from the riser before you break any bolt free or try to remove it. If you don't, the water will get into the exhaust passages and into the motor.

Remove the exhaust elbows, inspect, replace if you have any question about their integrity as they are cheap, re-powering is not.

Clean both mating surfaces well.

Do not use any gasket sealer when using the Volvo Gaskets. Follow the instructions with the replacement gaskets, torque to the proper level and you should be good to go.

Oh, ya, remember to replace the drain plugs in the exhaust manifold.

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Jvalich
http://www.badcock.com

'04 FW 288 Vista "Mental Floss"

Funnily enough, I have just done this on my 2004 245 5.7GXi. One riser to manifold gasket was weeping, leading to some external rust on the manifold. I decided to change them both before they got any worse ( and potentially serious). I decided to remove the manifolds as well whilst I was at it, to give them a good clean out and to replace the manifold gaskets ( figuring that if a riser gasket was on the way out, the manifolds ones were possibly not far behind). The water galleries of the manifolds and risers were remarkably clean, maybe the "Neutrasalt" I have on my boat actually does something!

In my case, the riser bolt threads were not rusty and they came out easily. If your's are rusty, then a squirt of "plusgas" or similar the day before should free them up.

I found VP only sell a "kit" comprising of 2 riser gaskets and an instruction booklet.

re the bolts, I reused mine as the threads were clean ( I put a little bit of colloidal nickel antisieze on them. to keep them that way). Or rather, I re-used 6 and bought 2 new ones, as those 2 were quite bent ; no idea why, they were the original ones! I cut the heads off/ slotted the ends of those 2 bolts and used them as manifold to head gasket locators, it made refitting the manifolds very easy.

It's vital to ensure the mating surfaces are clear of all traces of old gasket and that they are flat/ not pitted ( and of course than no bits go into the engine!). I used a gasket removal liquid, it made it much easier than just scraping manually. Let me know if you go for aftermarket gaskets and need any details from the VP instruction booklet.

Graham

Excellent replies to both, make me feel a little easier, just didn't want to snap bolts, as it is only a '06. One side is weeping as well.

Do the manifold gaskets come in pairs too?

_________________
2006 300 Sundancer
2007 Trailblazer LT V8
2004 Grand Prix GTP Comp G (For Sale)
Previous Boats:
2006 255 Sundowner 5.7GXI-G
2000 CrownLine 202BR
1994 Baja 180 Islander
1980 Galaxy 18' BR

Hard to believe something like this is relatively easy - yet the dealer will charge you an arm & a leg to do this work.

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2008 318 Vista -SOLD, but I am still around!
All Night Long, Seattle WA

For some reason the VP manifold gaskets come individually. If you are doing those as well, I really would still buy a couple of bolts ( or studs) to hold the gasket in place/ slide the manifolds on. In the US you'll probably find it easy to find bolts with the right threads in a hardware store, rather than having to cut down expensive VP ones like I did! I could only find metric ones easily here in the UK.

Graham

I build Packaging machinery, and I have a lot of stainless hardware. Would it be safe to replace the manifold and riser hardware with Stainless?

_________________
2006 300 Sundancer
2007 Trailblazer LT V8
2004 Grand Prix GTP Comp G (For Sale)
Previous Boats:
2006 255 Sundowner 5.7GXI-G
2000 CrownLine 202BR
1994 Baja 180 Islander
1980 Galaxy 18' BR

My only concern would be the potential effect of CLTE. I don't know whether the steel bolts have a similar CLTE to the riser/ manifold, so the strain on the gaskets remain the same over the operating temperature range. If the CLTE of stainless is different, over a number of cycles it could cause issues as the joint tighten up/ slackens off.

Graham

If it is under warranty, make sure you use Volvo gaskets with no sealer. They will void the warranty if you use after market gaskets and/or gasket sealer. i know from experience... a $6000 experience!

_________________
Jvalich
http://www.badcock.com

'04 FW 288 Vista "Mental Floss"

My question wasn't gaskets or sealer. It was if I could sub hardware for S/S hardware. I would use VP gaskets.

_________________
2006 300 Sundancer
2007 Trailblazer LT V8
2004 Grand Prix GTP Comp G (For Sale)
Previous Boats:
2006 255 Sundowner 5.7GXI-G
2000 CrownLine 202BR
1994 Baja 180 Islander
1980 Galaxy 18' BR

Many years ago I worked in R&D on materials for automotive gaskets. even with graphite based gaskets, which are very forgiving, one of the major factors in gasket failure was cycling, there the gasket was subjected to varying degrees of load (varying stress). That's why I raised concern about stainless bolts being possibly different ( not necessarily worse) than the standard steel bolts. It's one more excuse for an OEM to reject a warranty claim.

Graham

Well, I got the risers and manifolds off. The bolts weren't that tight. I could see where the other side manifold had an exhaust leak. I have only 197 hours on this boat and I think the rust is a little much. Is there a process to remove the inner rust or do I just get some small bottle brushes and go at it?

_________________
2006 300 Sundancer
2007 Trailblazer LT V8
2004 Grand Prix GTP Comp G (For Sale)
Previous Boats:
2006 255 Sundowner 5.7GXI-G
2000 CrownLine 202BR
1994 Baja 180 Islander
1980 Galaxy 18' BR

You're going to get rust in the manifolds esp if you run in salt water and some people recommend changing them at 5 seasons or so if not closed cooled. I had heard that Volvo had problems with some of the riser gaskets and there was a tech service bulletin issued by Volvo on this, you might want to check into it just in case the gaskets or torque specs were changed. I would not change the bolts to stainless because of the reason mentioned. On thing I'd like to see is someone come out with a one piece manifold/riser assembly like I have on my 88 V-6 Cobra, they are hard to find now and expensive, but there is no joint to leak and let water into the engine. Must just be too expensive to cast I guess, but a better design in my opinion.

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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

Another improvement to the sealing could be if it was redesigned so there was no water passage cutouts in the gasket, but an external connection so water went into the manifold and then on to the riser via that external connection.

Regarding the rust, a thin pipe brush is the only way to remove it from the internal passages, Even so, you'll not get it all off. To stabilise the rust you already have, you could consider filling the water pasasges with a tannic acid/ acrylic rust converter solution, which converts surface rust to a well adhered iron tannate/ acrylic layer.

The Neutrasalt system seems to have protected mine well; might be worth considering fitting it, to prevent or at least minimise future rusting.

Graham

Thanks ALL, I'm off to the store to get some brushes and see what I can do. New gaskets monday and we'll see.

_________________
2006 300 Sundancer
2007 Trailblazer LT V8
2004 Grand Prix GTP Comp G (For Sale)
Previous Boats:
2006 255 Sundowner 5.7GXI-G
2000 CrownLine 202BR
1994 Baja 180 Islander
1980 Galaxy 18' BR