exhaust elbow service life

[Martin610]

My 2013 Cutwater 28 is now ten years old, I have had it for five. It's a great boat for me, running very well.

I have a question about the service life of the exhaust elbow and maybe the exhaust manifold too. How do you know when these need to be replaced? My understanding is if they fail there can be catastrophic damage, so I certainly want to avoid that.

Servicing/replacing these things isn't cheap either.

Anyone have any input they can share?

-martin610

 

[BB marine]

Exhaust manifold is fresh water cooled. As long as you maintain the antifreeze, replacement intervals, as stated in the Volvo Penta recommendations you should get years of service. The Exhaust elbow is raw water jacketed. There are two things to inspect. The high soot build up and corrosion at the turbo and elbow and the water jacket. The exhaust is cooled from the raw water cooling injected at the elbow. You can see the hose that is connected to the elbow. The D4 is a relatively easy inspection of the elbow. When the elbow is removed you can also look at the turbine side of the turbo. Look to see if you have coke build up and corrosion. Clean the wheel and inspect the elbow and reinstall. You are probably going to see everything is good but it is always good to be proactive in maintenance instead of reactive.

 

[Martin610]

Thanks Brian. Great advice as always.

-martin610

 

[fishheadbarandgrill]

On my BY-260 Yanmar, I replaced the elbow at approx 1000 hrs/12 years. It was time.