Crystals in exhaust

[dhornsey]

Hey All,

Looking for some advice. We recently removed the exhaust riser on our engine and discovered these crystals in the exhaust outlet on the block.

There is only one thing I can think of that it might be. Last summer our exhaust high-rise snapped due to a faulty weld and with no pressure to push it out some cooling water backed up into this area. I thought we would have noticed this at that time if it was there then, but maybe we overlooked it? Any other ideas what could cause this?

The engine runs fine, no smoke or anything. Any input appreciated.

[brak]

is it fresh or salt water cooled?

[dhornsey]

Fresh water cooled.

[CDsailor]

Definitely looks like salt/mineral crystals. Scrape some and try to dissolve in warm water.

Could the engine have ingested more water than you thought? It also seems like the crystals precipitated recently. Wouldn't soot have discolored them black by now? I would pressure check cooling system to make sure no other leaks exist.

[dhornsey]

When we had water back into the engine last summer, we removed the high rise exhaust, and any water in the area shown in the picture would have mostly drained out. Is there somewhere beyond this area that could have been holding water? I can't quite picture the internals of my engine... I know the valves and cylinders are in there somewhere, but given that the engine has always started fine, I'm fairly confident they weren't full of water. Any other ideas what could explain this?

Thanks.

[capttb]

If you can look at it magnified some if it is SALT (NaCl, table salt, sea salt) the crystals should be square, other "chemical" salts will not . I see a thin layer of the normal soot build-up underneath, my guess would be that the soot layer is slightly porous and absorbed enough seawater to exude the salt when heated.