I'd have no problem running imco, gil, emi, eickert, cmi, Stelling , lightning , or stainless marine with the right setup.

Brand isn't the issue here

SM was just an example of a manifold vs. header. Not a fan of headers unless you are leaving a ton of HP on the table by not running them. In this build I'd run manifolds vs. headers. Funny sight at the LOTO Harbor Hop back in May. At Larry's I saw a 46 Cig with 1075's and SM manifolds. Must have gotten tired of the CMI blues!

I agree, headers can be leaky. My stellings 18 years old and they needed a leak fixed last year. Cost me about 75 bucks having my local welder fix it. A friend of mine has stainless marine manifolds and the risers needed repairs as they were leaking badly at the welds. I have a few buddies running the lightning headers for years in fresh water with no leaks . I wouldn't be afraid to run a set .

Besides the cmi crap mercury specd, I think a lot of header issues are caused by improper tailpipe support, esp on staggered boats that run in rough waters. You just can't put all that stress on the collector. Stainless doesn't like being flexed repeatedly from all the twisting and vibrating.

With that being said my next exhaust will prob be stainless marine GEN I I I with 5" tails .

Probably wouldn't cuss a whole lot more than I already am!

I really like the Eickerts, and if I had room I would be looking for a set. It would probably require extensive transom surgery to run anything with a fixed tailpipe, unless I had a set of custom tails made for it.

MT, I'm in agreement with you on that - the way they have those holes directing the water at a 90*, it is literally like pizzing in the wind. I think it would help just to weld something to deflect the spray towards the transom, as Jerry (US1 Fountain) described. Also agree that it's not the cam's fault, although I think that the modern heads with the more efficient exhaust ports can push an engine that is on the edge of reverting over the proverbial cliff. Flow goes both ways, and a poor flowing exhaust port would hedge against reversion, at least as I see it.

Plan right now is to run it one more time with the standard collectors sealed up with silicon like Lightning advised, and keep the idle at or above 900 to be safe. I'll be interested to see if that is where it was pulling water. This winter I might explore some changes to the way the water is fed into those collectors.

Appreciate all the help, and the razzing too. Hell, at least I'm not one of those guys who throws a "3/4 race cam" in there and tries to run stock Merc exhaust, and then comes on here bashing everyone. Have fun everyone, and thanks for the suggestions. I'll try not to start any more threads on here.

Glad you made it back OK, Brian. And thanks for the advice.

Please run it!!! My combo is similar to yours except that I am running about 10.2-1 compression and I am running silent choice with no issues..... Keep in mind that when the engine is installed, the hoses that connect to the Y pipe will be used and they exit straight down in front of the diverter valves...... I bet half the water goes down there and the other half goes out the back. That has to help prevent reversion by allowing gravity to help pull that water down........As I said before, on the stand with cold hose water, your engine never got up to temp and a cold engine will create condensation bad in high humidity. I also had aluminum heads with no heat crossover and an air gap inake as well and I could keep my hand on the heads after it had run for an hour.... The intake was cool to the touch and it was sweating like crazy so keep that in mind. I bet you will have no problem as long as you get your engine up to normal operating temps.....