guys, i appreciate all of the help. i'm trying to sip champagne on a beer pocket book. think i'll just rebuild the one motor and wait til next offseason for the bigger cams, headers, and carbs. better safe than sorry. i'd rather be on the water going a little slower than working 2-3 more months for the headers. thanks again, Eric

fresh idea. block the water passages to the risers and divert the water to bungs installed in the exhaust farther down the line. i know i won't get the big hp increase until the other mods are added but i really, really don't want to pull those things again. what do you think? will i burn up those ugly rubber hoses w/o water? if this'll work, i can also install some O2 sensors in my risers. Eric

That will not work. The water is introduced to cool the exhaust and prevent a fire. You would need full length risers with a water jacket to do what you are thinking.

Eric, dont know if its a good idea or not but when I was looking for the boat I have now saw several that had welded shut the water dumps in risers then drilled 4 small holes to get some cooliing water to rubber hoses. they drilled and tapped and put a fitting in top of riser and sent the majority of water overboard thru that, he did admit that he set off his halon when melted the hoses first time because he didnt get enough coolin water in hoses