You have already called, the bill has already been sent.

I have an antidote for my death syrum, for an extra fee.

On a serious note, hang in there. Many of us have been in your shoes. Schit, I had a damn engine take me almost 2 yrs because of schit like this - on top pf that getting married, moving, new business, etc, etc,etc.

It just makes you stronger and #1, when finally done it makes you enjoy it that much more.

Things like this make you realize why the big name builders get the $$$ they do. The ones that are cheap, well, don't work out to well.

Thanks SB. I went looking for some stainless 4" pipe like we discussed on the phone, and stumbled on an exhaust shop here in town that does a lot of custom stainless stuff. The guy who owns the business is a boater, and he took me out back to show me his Corsa (24x7 Pantera type) that has a 496 equipped with - you guessed it - Lightnings. So he is pretty familiar with my situation, and he has what is needed to help me get this sorted out. I have a couple of things I am going to try out this weekend, and I will probably be paying him a return visit on Monday to get everything done up right. Probably going to modify the existing tips as we discussed, but may also use the diverters with the butterflies removed and a long inner 4" pipe to extend the collector. I'm going to mock up one type of collector on each side and run it on the cart to see which one looks like the best solution.

He had a piece of stainless already bent on his expander that looked like it would make an effective reversion dam if welded to the inside of the 4" insert. What do you think, SB - would that hurt the exhaust flow too much?







If the stuff I'm trying this weekend doesn't work, he said we could just make a new set of collectors that are dry to the tip with just a single squirter angled at the tips and a bung for dumping the rest overboard.
I feel better now.

I see what you got now. It looks like they should of had the water exit with the flow of the exaust instead of straight in to it. Like a baffle over those holes. I have CMI"s and the water flows with the exaust .They are like little channels insted of holes.

If you were going to make new pieces, heres what ya do.

Slip your new inner pipe, into the new outer pipe. On the side that faces the transom, you''ll see the distance between the inner and outer pipe to be 1/4'' gap all the way around (when inner pipe is centered). DO NOT seal/swedge/weld the pipes together at that point. What ya do is tack weld little 1/4" spacers, say 1/4x1/4, around the inner pipe at 4 points. Say 12, 3, 6, and 9 oclock position. This will hold the inner and outer pipe together, but leave the rest of the area open for water to flow directly towards the transom. Clean and simple.

try removing the drains completly out of the logs and see what that does...would be the same as my bleed-offs wide open...love to know

EZ, I think I tried that once before and it didn't make a lot of difference. There is just so much water going through those pipes that it would take a larger diameter bleed to make much difference. Did you notice any difference in sound level with yours open?

MT, I get what you are saying - would that be with 4 1/2 and 5" pipes? They used 5 inch outers and 4 inch inners to construct these, so there is about 1/2" gap in between. The 5 inch outer then funnels down to meet the 4 inch inner where the hose attaches, and that is where the water is introduced.

You 2 are on exact same wave length as me, and what I explained to him.

Group meeting adjorned. We have a game plan to go forth with. Go to it Budman. LOL.

no I did not, but what about a dump before the log to bleed off before the headers ? with what you are doing you can see how much water you can divert...

Ok ,so I have used the same headers with more cam...No problem. .Headers are not the problem with your build .You could just about have a gill type short riser exhaust on that cam and not have an issue. If it is truly sucking back hard, you did something wrong on motor..Did you degree the cam in.If so ,what timing set did you use ?........Never have I heard as much debate over a relatively mild build .......