Yeah, it sucked...bad.

They were the original headers off the engine I believe, which is either an 04 or 05(previosu owner put the 525 in to replace a 496 HO). Here is a pic of the painted up Stainless Marine unit.

Would the dana manifolds perform as well as the already mentioned? For a manifold they look pretty good!

That looks great. If they were the original headers on an 2004 motor, then they were not Gen-X headers. My motors are 2004 as well and they have the lower quality CMI headers that everyone is talking about. The newer upgraded CMI headers are supposedly better. My mechanic called Mercury to get a price from them and they want $11,400 PER MOTOR, that was infuriating!!! Looking at your picture, I have a bit more complicated setup. I have semi staggered motors, and silent choice exhaust so changing out all my tails is not trivial.

The stainless marine is like $3400 a motor from Hardin or cp performance. Yeah it is a little more work getting it all set up but worth every penny, not counting the money you are saving. People have done it with side by side setups with the motors in the boat so your setup would be easier.

He is going to be way past 3400 per side to add to a fountain. My guess is he has about $10k in additional parts/work to add them to a stag fountain ride.

Gladh8er's set up does look great merc blu, the bling is just as good IMO. But that is a basic bravo setup, drill heads and go. Fountain's exhaust routing could not be more complicated. Even without the silent choice option they still run split tails, half leading to the transom assembly.

Im guessing that Gladh8er was repairing his leaking stock header, and it kept causing problems?

Aren't the Gen X headers around $5k through CP? If so I agree that would be the best route.

Yeah, thats about right. As of now, I'm probably going the CMI/Gen-X route. Pressure testing headers this afternoon to make sure that's the problem before I order the headers. Because of the staggered setup, I need swept headers on the port engine and straight on the starboard engine. It's about 5K for the port and about 6.5K for the starboard.

The same set of headers cracked 3 times...all in different places. The first two times I got them welded and those welds are still fine. It just got to be too much, especially with the top end rebuilds. The old CMI's are in my basement waiting to be turned into a coffee table(seriously).

My mechanic hooked me up and gave them to me at cost, which was about $2,400 I believe. $200 for paint, a few hours of labor and it is back together and I never have to worry about those damn CMI's leaking again.

Do you guys drain your headers after each run. I had a set of lightnings in a 20 cig and they ran for years. I would drain them after each run.

It's not corrosion that's killing them. It's heat cycles and cracking.