EdNewman

I went to change the oil on my 525's and guess what... water in the oil again. I thought I was done with the 5 years ago when I bit the bullet and spend over $10k to buy two new sets of Hardin Marine headers. They at the time claimed they were so much better than the CMI's which were failing. We'll interesting where we find ourselves now. After 2 years, one failed and they repaired it under warranty. I pressure tested both of the problem engine and one had a few small leaks on the welds. I sent it back to Hardin for repair and received a call from them today. The headers are rotted out and need to be replaced. 5 years old and they are junk? I am extremely disappointed in not only the failure but their complete lack of customer service. The representative claims their headers only have a 2-5 year life span in salt water. FYI to anyone thinking about buying them. So now I am going to try and have them repaired locally. Anyone put cast manifolds on their 525's????

Crude Intentions

iTrader: (1)

Stainless marine. They even will send te jig to re drill the heads for the bolts. My next boat will most certainly end up with stainless marine. Don't read anywhere about failures from them and on the rare occasion it happens I've read they are designed to fail externally so as to not destroy a motor

DiamondPerformance

iTrader: (2)

We sell a lot of the Stainless Marine 525efi manifolds. You will not see a loss of performance with the SM manifolds. http://www.diamondperformanceparts.c...cat=272&page=1

HyFive578

iTrader: (3)

Wow, that certainly is disappointing, especially the "rotted out" part, although 5 years is probably around the time any of these stainless headers would start to show signs of failure. The key to header longevity, especially in salt, is to keep them cool as possible, fresh water flush religiously and drain them down when they've cooled. Sorry this happened to you.. been there.. but thank you for posting.. I've been wondering a lot about those Hardin headers...

MER Performance

The 525 OEM spec headers did have issues. OEM went with their own specs. given to CMI.Most headers are going to crack from heat or if they are under stress from the boat flexing. If you have a staggered set-up the fwd engine is going to have more of a chance of header cracking. If you run in salt water I would use SALT-AWAY this is a neutralizer for the water, even fresh water has corrosive tendencies, higher mineral content. If you want to get headers to last flush them out and install a drain valve. Double check the type stainless CMI uses verses Hardin. Hardin makes some lower cost headers that are ceramic coated internally. That primary tube is steel, which will rust out if the ceramic cracks or flakes off.

SDFever

Gonna reach here a little but has anyone ever considered whether or not the header manufacturers use the correct rod "all the time"? I know that in our line of work you can use many variances in filler when welding stainless pipe but if you don't use the correct filler then the weld fails due to corrsion faster than any other part of the item. ..not only is there a difference in quality of stainless but if you weld with a different alloy then you also create your own self-induced electrolyisis in salt water cause there are now dissimilar metals within the stream on top of one another. Theoretically, the further away the two are in nobility then the higher, faster the rate of said disappearing act.

It's all relative to use and maintenance etc but you can weld the tubes up using the wrong rod (cheaper) and they will last for quite a while but will fail sooner than what's usually expected. I spend time in weld shops and i see them often grabbing whatever is available for almost an infinite number of reasons or excuses.

But I donn't know for certain -

302Sport

Why does everyone come on here, b!tch about CMI and their multiple failures but yet when people give you the manifold that won't leak (Stainless Marine) , it doesn't even get consideration.

For all the people who have read that they can put SM on their 525's and will never have a problem but refuse to do it for whatever reason, please don't come on here and ***** about your leaky CMI's because you were already told what you should have put on your engines.

Rant over...

SDFever

3 Reasons -

1. They're upset and the internet is a great place for them to feel as though "people are listening".
2. They're also not real interested in doing a search and reading what's already there because half the interest in a forum is posting your words.
3. Most of us don't own a 50 foot Nor-Tech (awesome boat) and a 40 foot Intrepid (another friggin' awesome boat) and so when your only posted option is to start removing what little "bling" you had it very quickly becomes an answer you don't wanna hear even though it may be true.

How many guys really accept the advice from a divorce attorney and never question it???

Life's tough. Life as a boat owner is tougher -

..and to say you will "never" have a problem with SM in salt water.. well that's still arguably just another matter of time.

donzi matt

iTrader: (1)

CMI's are like that wicked hot chick who always wants expensive dinners and gifts, then dumps you anyways.

Stainless Marine's are like that sorta plain chick that gives wicked good head, makes a hell of a good lasagna, and keeps her mouth shut when football is on.

Drock78

iTrader: (2)

They are blinded by the bling. Personally I wouldn't hesitate to run SM as I have on 2 previous boats. Simple and effective design and they sound great with 0 performance loss VS CMI'S. I say that it's a no brainer...but then again I don't own a $300k boat.