The risers themselves have the water passages in the tube..like a double walled tube. The manifold has the 4 oval shaped water passages that we are referring to welding up.

if you look close eddie welds them up in house..been their and watched them do it yrs ago,,i was out that way visiting with kenny that use to run the place..

back to early in the thread, you don't get water in 2 because of the angle the boat sits at. 2 is up higher than the rear cyls. and the drain trick WILL work for the short term. the water comes in while sitting after shut down. the water comes in while running, but exhaust pressure makes it leave. only runs down into exhaust ports after shut down. but it is a halfa$$ patch for the time being. my manifolds are resealed, but I am still gonna run the drain. I can't see leaving water above my exhaust ports all week while boat is sitting waiting for the weekend.

The water is coming in while the boat is running. I know this cause its causing the boat to idle horrible, almost dieing at idle..and Im needed a long term fix..nothing short term..

Did you try running it after torquing the riser bolts properly? When I put my risers on I missed a glob of crap on one of the riser gaskets on my Gil manifolds. They are a dry joint and I was really surprised how much water was reverting back through that gasket from the exhaust leak. Cleaned it up and torqued it and it is dry as a chip. Pulled the plugs on that side after idling on the low side and I don't see any signs of water either.

mine would do that to,,the reason is you have a holly carberator,,cold harted b!tch and they dont like the cold..you have a hp 500 style intake,,a crossover and your engine is not building any heat which = a cold carb..once it warms up on a long run i bet it idles fine then after it cools off it runs like shi t again..also make sure the tiny a/f screws are only 1/2 turn out and see how it idles..

No I didn't try after we found the loose bolts..The intake and other head was already off the boat...

Im just praying that the gasket was the whole issue..funny how one little gasket can cause so many headaches..
Wonder if eddie marine would fix the issue on my manifolds??