Exhaust system elements

[Kelly]

I'm looking at this exhaust setup (Choey Lee B30) and wondering if I just leave it intact or upgrade.

As with many of you I see in the older threads who have changed the hot section of the system, I have to do the same (rusted enough to twist into two pieces in my hands).

But what about after the hot section? The first photo shows the hot section arriving at the riser (?). It's going up toward a port-side cockpit locker and the visible angle in the photo is nearly correct. The bright white deck support to the left should be vertical.

Once in the locker (second photo), there is again a short wrapped section of pipe before arriving in the water lift muffler from the bottom(?). This all looks to be original hardware (circa 1964). Does what I call the muffler seem to you to actually be one?

The third photo shows the exhaust (wrapped with some sort of rope) leaving the muffler from low on the side. From there on out it's pretty much a straight shot out the transom.

I guess my main question is, should I pressure test the system and leave good enough alone? Or should I take everything apart, including the wrapped pipe after the muffler to really see what is going on. It seems that I could remove all this beefy hardware and just install a plastic water lift muffler with flexible exhaust hose running from the muffler to the transom (for not too much money).

Any brainstorming and/or enlightened comments are welcome!

Kelly in France

[Don Moyer]

Kelly,

It would be wonderful if another Choey Lee owner would check in with some first-hand advice on your specific system, but I would find trying to reconstruct your present (original) system to be very daunting, and no doubt very expensive. I'm very concerned over your comment that one of your wrapped pipes can be twisted in your hands. This would indicate that the pipe is almost completely rusted away under the wrapping material.

Pending the advice of another Choey Lee owner, I think I'd vote to replace the old system and install a more modern and simple water lift muffler system.

Don

[Kelly]

Don,
Yours is the only response so far but I’m already leaning in the direction of your advice.

It seems to me that I would have more “peace of mind” with new piping for the hot section, a new water lift muffler and exhaust hose between the muffler and the transom. This would be a system at least forty years younger and more visible in the case of eventual problems.

I’m attaching two photos of the rusted-out hot section. The break occurred at an elbow after the straight section from the manifold and before the turn to the riser. I do believe the time had come to replace this. It looks like the exhaust wrap was pretty much holding the pipe together!

Best regards and thanks for the advice,
Kelly

[Don Moyer]

Kelly,

I agree. The system appears to be far more complicated than necessary.

Don

[Kelly]

I just wanted to come back to this thread and post some more pictures as I recently removed the exhaust system elements and cleaned them up.

Contrary to my first opinion, I will re-install this system since there appears to be absolutely NO corrosion present and, as the addage says, if it isn't broken, don't fix it.

If you remember, I had wanted to replace the system with something more modern and perhaps with less risk of failure. This was of course before dismantling everything and actually seeing how beefy and well preserved the original construction is. I've never seen copper pipes with such thick walls and I don't think they'll ever fail seeing that the only internal corrosion is a thin film of what looks to be carbon coating the surfaces (like what you see on correctly functioning spark plugs).

My only question now is the following: is this what people often refer to as a "copper monster"? If so, I wish I had more monsters in my everyday life.

Kelly in France