525 Header Failure??
 

Anyone know anything or got any experience with the headers on 525's failing due to corrosion. I've got one that basically turned to swiss cheese in about a two to three square inch section in the top of one of the tubes. I've heard rumblings that there have been problems with corrosion at other points (flanges) resulting in sea water leaking back into the head/cylinders. The reason for my question is I'm simply wondering if my other three headers are time bombs. At better than 4K a piece I'm not in a hurry to replace, but I certainly don't want to drown one of the motors either.

Thanks in advance.
C.

Salt water,even on immaculately maintained boats like yours ,is not kind to 525 headers. I have a customer in south Fl that has replaced a couple,a customer in Ca that has replaced 2,actually one today,and these were well maintained boats. And unfortunately,most extended warranty programs exclude the exhaust system:(

The new ones they make have a new design. They now have what they call a cool collar. These are better CMI says.
If you have a problem with one odds are you are going to have a problem with the others. We put 4 new ones on a few months ago, better safe than sorry.

CMI"s "Cool Collar" header is not all that new. Are any Mercury Racing's 525's not the "Cool Collar" design?

I know two people with 525s and they both had CMI header issues and they flushed after every run.

How new are they ?

no very early 525's did not have cool collar

This is Dan's dad.
Welcome to the CMI club!!!!
I work in aerospace and am fixng CMI headers all the time.
Unlike CMI, we don't let tubes fail at 40,000 feet!
I think we all expected more when we finally had enough money to buy a boat with stainless steel headers!
Right gang!?
Thank goodness for TIG welding!!!!

My buddy had 8 repairs on 6 headers by 300 hours. Finally bought new ones all the way across, one of those had a leak in a tube on first fire up-sprayed water 3 feet high. They wouldn't even send a new one-made him return the "NEW" one for repair:rolleyes:

I have one of the early 525's and before I bought my boat, the port side was replaced and then last year I had the starboard side let go, but it was fixable. I scored a very slightly used set from Tyler Crockett (mainly freshwater use) this year but I still have my old set. I wouldn't mind picking up some cash for them, but I'm so nervous right now about not having another set. Is there a way to tell if I have the cool collar set?