Sunday, March 8, 2015

We got that exhaust manifold on!

Looks like spring is coming and with a little break in the cold weather, we headed back down to the boat to continue our saga of changing the cylinder heads and exhaust manifolds on our boat.

When we left the boat six weeks ago, the intake manifold was back on. First order of business on Saturday was to torque it down, which we did: first 20 lbs (in a particular order according to the engine manual) and then 40 lbs. Done. While we were there on Saturday, we scoped out just what we'd have to do to slip the new outboard exhaust manifold in between the engine and the water tank and then lift it up and bolt it to the head.

We made a number of measurements and it was clear that we weren't going to be able to screw in a couple of studs at the back and front of the head and simply slide the 52 lb. manifold on them. That's the way we have done it in the past on GM engines with more room to work. But now the water tank was too close to engine so we only had 3 inches or so to work with.

It was still pretty cold on Saturday, so we took notes and went home to think.

On Sunday morning, our car read 47 degrees outside temperature so we headed back to Portland and climbed up onto the boat. We had a new strategy for getting the exhaust manifold in place: rig a pulley and haul the manifold up to where it could be bolted in place. Good idea for something, but not for what we were trying to do.

Our next option was to simply get down on our knees next to the engine and then reach over and lift one end of the manifold up to a point where we could slip one bolt in. The manifold was resting on the edge of the water tank shelf and every time we tried to move it, the aft end slipped. No go. Time to take a break and think about what we were doing.

We found a piece of 2 X 4 that was about 6 inches long. We wedged that under the aft end of the manifold and went back to leaning over the engine and pulling up on the forward end of the manifold.

That worked. We were able to thread one end bolt into the block. With that done, we tried lifting the manifold so we could seat the other end bolt. That went quickly (about 25 minutes) but at least the damned thing was were it was supposed to be. We slipped in the exhaust manifold gasket and put the remaining four bolts in. Done. See ya in hell, manifold! Your twin on the inside should take about 30 minutes.

Overall, a good weekend. Our long underwear got a workout and we'll sleep well tonight although with a heating pad.

We don't have any pictures of the actual installation but we did some before and after video. We know, Bill needs a haircut. We'll do that this week.

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