haulinvols

A buddy of mine and I tore down my 502 down to the block yesterday diagnosing a couple problems in the heads. During the tear down I noticed some crystal like deposits in my Dana Marine headers. What is this, what would cause it?

The issues were a small leak in the head gasket and a broken pushrod guide.

haulinvols

I should add the first and third picture are the same header. and the crystals are all the way through. This was the side with the small head gasket leak.

The middle picture was on the good side and the crystals are just at the outlet side of the header.

I am guessing some corrosion from moisture is ok and the side with the leak would have more.

I am just concerned that it could be from some reversion.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Raylar

I would guess from the pictures that those are aluminum oxides from the aluminum oxidizing with the water vapor mixing with the hot exhaust gases. It might indicate you have an exhaust flow restriction with either to much water vapor backing up in the exhaust from multiple possible reasons. Idling a lot with an quick and quiet type exhaust system, exhaust tips under water a bit to much at idle, larger overlap camshaft, possible to high a water flow into exhaust or possible high water temp before water enters exhaust flow? Just some guesses here without more info on your exact system, engine and setup particulars.

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

haulinvols

Ray,

Thanks for the response. The motor is a 502 with HP500 heads, cam (not very aggressive) and Dana Marine headers. It does have a quick and quiet exhaust and unfortunately has had more idling than I would like. Exhaust is well above water line but I did find while going through the boat that the flapper on that side was burned out so new tips are also on the list.

dana marine products

From the picture, it looks like you're running our short aluminum risers. If that's the case, those risers introduce the water pretty early in the exhaust stream. These are designed for use in stock engines.

haulinvols

What would be the part number and cost of the risers that you would recommend?
These were on the boat when I purchased it and they looked short to me given the setup.

FIXX

iTrader: (2)

Get a new set of exhaust manifold gaskets and set them on the manifolds to see if the ports line up..if i remember correctly the Dana marine manifolds had a problem of reversion and to add to the mess they were a 1/4'' off on i believe the port side manifolds ports..

A friend of mine had this issue,it was a stock engine and it would load up at idle, he let the boat sit over night and when he checked the oil the next day the motor oil had water in it..He pulled the manifolds and found water in them and the same spots you have shown in your pics which is water..He called Dana and they stated that their were a few manifolds that had been casted wrong and they replaced them,he had the SS risers which Dana also welded in extension on the inner pipe which they said would take care of the reversion..

He got all of his exhaust back from Dana and installed the complete system and he had the same water reversion problem..i gave him a set of glm manifolds and risers which he installed and the water problem went away..

this is our experience's with Dana marine's exhaust, im not knocking dana marine manifolds or risers im just replying from our experiences..Call Dana and tell them what you found,they stepped up to the plate for my friend and didn't charge him a dime so maybe they will step up to the plate for you as well.

this is the kit he had,http://www.danamarineproducts.com/Pr...f-7b8c4a768720