Joined
·
98 Posts
I'm currently battling war number 2 with my Westerbeke w21 that until 2 weeks ago, hadn't been started in 5 years. With all of your help I got it running nicely again, but even though I replaced every hose in the cooling system, lovingly bled the fuel system and replaced all the filters, oil, and fuel, the red beast of doom would not accept my penance and wanted more from me.
It turns out that the seals in/on the exhaust manifold were a bit of a mess and it leaked quite a bit of coolant into the bilge after running the motor for 10 minutes. I identified the leaks (pretty much every gasket on the manifold) and after an epic battle that made dogs whimper and children run, I was finally able to remove the entire manifold from the motor. I stripped it down, cleaned it out, gave it a nice bath, repainted the manifold, and replaced all the gaskets (8 total, 4 for coolant, 4 for exhaust).
Now I'm ready to reassemble and noticed that during the struggle to remove the manifold, I had to rip out some of the heat resistant wrapping material on the exhaust header (or the big iron looking thing with a mixing elbow at the aft end of the engine that I'm calling the header). I want to replace it, but I'm not sure what to get. There seem to be fiberglass, titanium, and 'lava' wraps for automotive use that I can get on Amazon, but I want to make sure I have the right thing before I order.
Does anyone have any recommendations? I'm certain that the beast will demand the finest cloth in the land to go with its shiny new manifold paint.
It turns out that the seals in/on the exhaust manifold were a bit of a mess and it leaked quite a bit of coolant into the bilge after running the motor for 10 minutes. I identified the leaks (pretty much every gasket on the manifold) and after an epic battle that made dogs whimper and children run, I was finally able to remove the entire manifold from the motor. I stripped it down, cleaned it out, gave it a nice bath, repainted the manifold, and replaced all the gaskets (8 total, 4 for coolant, 4 for exhaust).
Now I'm ready to reassemble and noticed that during the struggle to remove the manifold, I had to rip out some of the heat resistant wrapping material on the exhaust header (or the big iron looking thing with a mixing elbow at the aft end of the engine that I'm calling the header). I want to replace it, but I'm not sure what to get. There seem to be fiberglass, titanium, and 'lava' wraps for automotive use that I can get on Amazon, but I want to make sure I have the right thing before I order.
Does anyone have any recommendations? I'm certain that the beast will demand the finest cloth in the land to go with its shiny new manifold paint.