Stainless Steel Manifolds

Boat Doc, I a$$ume youre including me in your SBF count. I do not want any paint or powder on them- Id prefer them bare. I plan to have them jet-hot coated once I get them.

Not sure if that changes the price or not.

if that side is lean then it would run hotter and down the road would cause problems. The hy-tek's aren't causing the problem that's for sure.

sounds like a water flow problem, water takes its easiest path especially at idle, its possibly that there may be corrosion in the risers or some where else, fire the boat on the trailer and see if there is a difference at the exhaust in volume of water. if it was a carb or thermostat it would heat both sides and the problem disappears at wot, because now the water is under higher pressures and possibly is making its way through the restrticted area and allowing it to cool

depends on the quality of the exhaust too. If there is a difference in the jackets that create the water cavity so that one side can hold a large amount of water vs. the otherside then one would be hotter than the other. I would think they se a jig so that they are the same but I have never seen there manifacturing process and if they are all done by hand then you will see a difference from one to another and could create this very problem. Double check the routing and hose sizes for something to create a restriction on the side that is getting hotter. 5-10 degrees I wouldn't get excited about but 20-30 difference side to side isn't right.

Some difference in mani temps is normal as far as I know. Looking at the Tstat housing it would appear that the easiest route for the water to flow is straight over to the port side manifold. It's probably just more noticeable with the stainless steel vs. the cast which will take longer to show swings in temp. Just a theory for conversation's sake.

I will do a search again here in the forum but it seems as though I either read it here, talked to Vince at DIM, or one of the tech guys at PCM in North Carolina told me that it was normal to have the starboard side manifolds on my 92 351W to be hotter than the port side but not sure by how much. As M3Fan mentioned, it could have been doing this before but because I was never really paying attention to the stock manifolds it went unoticed. This may sound strange but the stock OEM heavy cast iron manifolds are very thick as most of you know and you don't hear much exhaust sound around the manifold when it is running. I say this because in the past if I was tuning the carb with the engine running on the trailer and bent down leaning over the engine with my ear close to the stock OEM manifold you don't hear much exhaust sound. After I changed to the Hi-Tek headers and in the same situation of bent down and leaning over the header to adjust the carb while the engine was running on the trailer, I noticed you could hear an exhaust note at the header...not a ticking exhaust leak just an exhaust note. As I leaned my ear right up almost touching the header you can hear alot of exhaust sound unlike before. Don't get me wrong, it is nothing that is real loud and you would not notice with the engine cover closed because in that sitaution it sounds just like stock. My point is that if I leaned over to the header very close you can hear so much more exhaust sound than before leading me to beleive that the walls surrouding the headers appear to be very high quality yet much thinner than the stock, thick, cast iron manifolds. Make sense? If you lay your hand on the side if the headers you can almost slightly feel the exhaust pulses. Maybe because of this design you just can hear a little more and you also feel more tempature as well. One other note...the engine temp is perfect and running a touch cooler than before and when I ran my hand over the water spitting out the rear of the boat while idling on the trailer it does not seem any hotter than before. Also...most of this higher temp on the starboard side is behind the header at the rubber exhaust hose that connects it to the muffler and not so much on the header itself. Any more ideas?

Yes they have drain plugs...one on each side. The boat in the water sounds just like it did before with the stock OEM manifolds...no difference in sound in my opinion.

Thanks!

JR VIC, have you called Allen about this heat issue? He has been very receptive to any questions and issues I have had so far,I don't think there should be a difference in the two ,same water,same distance=same temp.......boat dr
Jim as far as the conversation was a pleasure here also. My keystrokes leave a lot to be desired, but i talk real well.There are a lot of neat people I have met here,and hope to add to my list,its cool to put a voice with a name..........billy

I am also using the PSS shaft seal. Here is a link below to the install instructions for the PSS shaft seal from elberts website and look on the first page at number 11. The instructions say tap into the Port side exhaust riser hose although they don't say why you shouold use the Port side and not the Starboard side.

http://www.elberts.com/pss.pdf

Thanks!

boat doc, so what are you going to do? Polish or coat? Will he place any warrenty on the coating, that it will stay on?

TRB just spoke with Boat Doc less then half hour ago. He said Allen would rather lose a sale then send his product out unfinished. In order for him to let it leave the shop to a customer it must be polished or powder coated. He said he had a problem leting a set leave, the guy never had them finished or something and they look like hell, well that's what he told boat doc anyway. So maybe speaking will Allen about him jet-hotting them for you would help.

they are worried that if they send their porduct out unfinished and you don't have it finished(which I am not say you would do this) then their product and name is on your boat someone askes where you got the manifolds and you tell them. That other guys says those things look like hell no way would I buy a set from those people. When all the problem was is the customer never had them finished like he said he was going to.

I talked with boat doc about this and we both see Allen's point of view on sending out an unfinished product. We know your going to have it finished but he has already run into the problem with a guy not getting them finished.

Someone tells you stick your hand in a snake cage he don't bite, you do it and you get bit. You have a hard time sticking your hand in that cage again no matter how much someone says it don't bite. Just my two cents on it. I was hoping to get them bare myself, but it's just not going to happen.

why not get the polished?   if they are made from a quality grade of Stainless steel they won't rust and always look good, now if he is using 303 then your screwed.

bead blasting is going to do sh*t to prevent rusting, just remove surface rust if there is any. These are not going to get hot enough to discolor and if they are made form a quality grade like 304 or 316 and pa$$ivated after they are made then it won't rust or corroid and would only require polishing once awhile to keep the shine.

JR_VIC wrote: The first two-three inches of the header where it is not jacketed will just melt off

This is the area where I was concerned about discoloration on a bare (polished) manifold. I also dont think that jet-hot would burn off, unlike the powder.

Agreed, 79- not sure what grade of stainless Hi-Tek uses. Optimally, I would like to have the headers coated with jet hot for about the same price as Allen wants to sell the powder versions for. They should be more durable and slightly less expensive than the polished version.