Background...
Raw water cooled engine, seems like the original manifold. Over the past few seasons the manifold has gotten clogged a few times a year, and it's gotten worse. Usually a quick pressure flush fixes it right up. A bunch of black crud comes out, then it works fine, until we leave it sit for longer than a few weeks it gets blocked again and we pressure flush it. About once a year I do a vinegar flush and that helps for a while. The blockages are almost always on the manifold side. A few years back I had the water jacket side plate off and scooped a whole lot of black crud out of there.
New Problem...
So this weekend, we tried to take the boat out for the first time in about 2 months. The manifold was clogged so I tried to do a pressure flush. But it wouldn't come unclogged. I tapped a few times with that back of a screw driver on the side of the manifold and a trickle started to come out. But then a tiny pinhole leak came out of the bushing fitting for the back of the manifold water outlet. It was unclogged enough to get some vinegar in there.
The vinegar sat overnight. When I came back the next day it came completely unclogged with the pressure flush, however the pinhole leak in the fitting was much larger now and spraying hard. So I sprayed some penetrating oil on the fitting and put a wrench on it to see if I could remove it from the manifold.
Unfortunately it was completely corroded and just broke off instantly with minimal pressure from the wrench.
Now I have a very corroded fitting that seems to be fused into the manifold and nothing to bite onto to get it out.
My question is...
Should I waste time trying to get the fitting out to salvage this manifold, or will all my problems with the clogged manifold be fixed by just buying a new manifold. I certainly don't want to have to spend the money, but not knowing if the engine is going to be clogged every time I go to use the boat is getting frustrating. The pinhole leak might have been happening for a while, because the outside of the manifold is very rusted.
Raw water cooled engine, seems like the original manifold. Over the past few seasons the manifold has gotten clogged a few times a year, and it's gotten worse. Usually a quick pressure flush fixes it right up. A bunch of black crud comes out, then it works fine, until we leave it sit for longer than a few weeks it gets blocked again and we pressure flush it. About once a year I do a vinegar flush and that helps for a while. The blockages are almost always on the manifold side. A few years back I had the water jacket side plate off and scooped a whole lot of black crud out of there.
New Problem...
So this weekend, we tried to take the boat out for the first time in about 2 months. The manifold was clogged so I tried to do a pressure flush. But it wouldn't come unclogged. I tapped a few times with that back of a screw driver on the side of the manifold and a trickle started to come out. But then a tiny pinhole leak came out of the bushing fitting for the back of the manifold water outlet. It was unclogged enough to get some vinegar in there.
The vinegar sat overnight. When I came back the next day it came completely unclogged with the pressure flush, however the pinhole leak in the fitting was much larger now and spraying hard. So I sprayed some penetrating oil on the fitting and put a wrench on it to see if I could remove it from the manifold.
Unfortunately it was completely corroded and just broke off instantly with minimal pressure from the wrench.
Now I have a very corroded fitting that seems to be fused into the manifold and nothing to bite onto to get it out.
My question is...
Should I waste time trying to get the fitting out to salvage this manifold, or will all my problems with the clogged manifold be fixed by just buying a new manifold. I certainly don't want to have to spend the money, but not knowing if the engine is going to be clogged every time I go to use the boat is getting frustrating. The pinhole leak might have been happening for a while, because the outside of the manifold is very rusted.
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