gil exhaust question- can i cut these down??
 

well my motor is about a days worth of work from being ready to go into the boat. i have been doing some measuring and i have come to cunclude that the exhaust is not gonna line up with the tips, like as much as 5 inchs or so. the risers i have a the long old style "standard" risers. at the end of the tips where the 2 walls join there is a hole to let the water into the exhaust. now i have looked at some of the newer short risers and from what the picture looks like i can see the inner tube extending 2 or 3 inches further then the outter tube which is where my exhuast hose would mount. now if i where to cut 6"+/- off of the tubes i am loosing that seam that joins the tubes at the end, is this a issue or should i have that welded back in or have tehm join the tubes for a similar affect? the tips i am running angle up at maybe 30 degrees? so if i can put a 45 degree ell on them or even a custom fabbed ell (in that case welded to the exhaust) i think it will work and still look nice. i guess its either that or i need new shorter risers or some that would have the correct angle which i think would have to be custom fabbed anyways. anyone else dealt with this? am i over complicating it or maybe is there allot more to it then i am seeing? i cant post pics yet since the motor is not in but i may have it in this weekend if not it will be next weekend. thanks in advance and i hope i didnt make my self sound like a idiot here

Yes you can. I sent my Gils in to be shortened when I went from straight thru hull to silent choice. All they did was to cut the pipes to the required lenght, then weld a peice of SS rod onto one of the pipes to close up the gap between the 2 pipes to create a damn so that it would create enough of a damn to hold water in the pipes to cool the outer pipe. It was something like the bottom 1/3 being plugged with the top2/3 being left open for water flow. Have pics of my mod, but at lake now. Pics at home

This is what I did to shorten mine from the longer TRS tails I started with. I heated the inner pipe and used a wedge to expand it out to the outer pipe leaving some areas for the water to exit. I then made 2 45* cuts and kept twisting the pipes untill they lined up. I marked them, then had a friend TIG weld them. This pic is before I repolished them.

its the right idea but why didn't you just get a couple of 90s and make a nice smooth S out of it ? would have looked nicer and worked better to some degree .

payton, that i exactly what i need to do! the damming for the water is exactly what i was thinking also. i have a buddy that has a tig welder so as so as i get my angles figured out i am off to his place. thanks guys!

Steve, it matches what Super Hawaii had made for the forward ingine in my staggered setup.
I wish I had cleaned the bilge before I took these pics instead of after.