525 efi headers
05-23-2015 | 06:42 AM
#1
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525 efi headers
I just bought a 03 28 Advantage run for 4 hours and have some milky oil. I'm assuming that it is the headers that I have heard so many problems should I send them to CMI to have pressure tested? Or can you see where they are leaking? Or could the water in oil be coming from somewhere else?
05-23-2015 | 08:02 AM
#2
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From: Long Island, NY
There are a couple of possible causes here; Leaking headers and reversion.
As for the headers, you don't need to send them to CMI, you can easily pressure test them yourself. You just need a few fittings, an air compressor and a big rubbermaid tub (32 gal or bigger). Heres how.
You get two 1" rubber caps (I use the rubber furniture stoppers that go on the bottom of chair legs, they work perfectly) and put those on the jumper hose bung on the top and the water inlet tube on the distribution rail and tighten them with hose clamps. Then you need some fittings to attach your air hose to the 3/4" NPT inlet on the trailing end of the distribution rail. Use teflon tape when screwing in your fittings as you want the header to be air-tight for the test. Fill the rubbermaid tub with the hottest water you can stand, submerge the header in the water rocking it back and forth to ensure that the primaries are entirely filled with water and there is no air trapped in the exhaust passages at all. Then pressurize to 65 PSI and look for bubbles... Don't pressurize to more than 65 PSI, this is double the normal water pressure and is enough to find even pinhole leaks. Anything higher and you will blow the caps off. If you have a leak, it will be very obvious.
The second possibility is reversion and a few possible causes. Do you have Silent Choice or another switchable exhaust system? If so, this is a known cause of reversion on 525EFI's due to the water dump in the tail being too close to the collector in the header and the overlap of the cam, sucks that water right back in. A valve issue could be another. Idling on the trailer with the boat too level, etc..
Look inside the front of the collector, it should be nice and black and velvety.. if there are water streaks in there, that would be signs of reversion.
I would start with the header test first. If that is negative, then report back and we can start to narrow it down but don't run the boat. You need to get that milky oil out of there and find the cause so you don't trash the motor.
As for the headers, you don't need to send them to CMI, you can easily pressure test them yourself. You just need a few fittings, an air compressor and a big rubbermaid tub (32 gal or bigger). Heres how.
You get two 1" rubber caps (I use the rubber furniture stoppers that go on the bottom of chair legs, they work perfectly) and put those on the jumper hose bung on the top and the water inlet tube on the distribution rail and tighten them with hose clamps. Then you need some fittings to attach your air hose to the 3/4" NPT inlet on the trailing end of the distribution rail. Use teflon tape when screwing in your fittings as you want the header to be air-tight for the test. Fill the rubbermaid tub with the hottest water you can stand, submerge the header in the water rocking it back and forth to ensure that the primaries are entirely filled with water and there is no air trapped in the exhaust passages at all. Then pressurize to 65 PSI and look for bubbles... Don't pressurize to more than 65 PSI, this is double the normal water pressure and is enough to find even pinhole leaks. Anything higher and you will blow the caps off. If you have a leak, it will be very obvious.
The second possibility is reversion and a few possible causes. Do you have Silent Choice or another switchable exhaust system? If so, this is a known cause of reversion on 525EFI's due to the water dump in the tail being too close to the collector in the header and the overlap of the cam, sucks that water right back in. A valve issue could be another. Idling on the trailer with the boat too level, etc..
Look inside the front of the collector, it should be nice and black and velvety.. if there are water streaks in there, that would be signs of reversion.
I would start with the header test first. If that is negative, then report back and we can start to narrow it down but don't run the boat. You need to get that milky oil out of there and find the cause so you don't trash the motor.
Last edited by HyFive578; 05-23-2015 at 08:05 AM.
06-22-2015 | 08:14 AM
#3
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Headers
There are a couple of possible causes here; Leaking headers and reversion.
As for the headers, you don't need to send them to CMI, you can easily pressure test them yourself. You just need a few fittings, an air compressor and a big rubbermaid tub (32 gal or bigger). Heres how.
You get two 1" rubber caps (I use the rubber furniture stoppers that go on the bottom of chair legs, they work perfectly) and put those on the jumper hose bung on the top and the water inlet tube on the distribution rail and tighten them with hose clamps. Then you need some fittings to attach your air hose to the 3/4" NPT inlet on the trailing end of the distribution rail. Use teflon tape when screwing in your fittings as you want the header to be air-tight for the test. Fill the rubbermaid tub with the hottest water you can stand, submerge the header in the water rocking it back and forth to ensure that the primaries are entirely filled with water and there is no air trapped in the exhaust passages at all. Then pressurize to 65 PSI and look for bubbles... Don't pressurize to more than 65 PSI, this is double the normal water pressure and is enough to find even pinhole leaks. Anything higher and you will blow the caps off. If you have a leak, it will be very obvious.
The second possibility is reversion and a few possible causes. Do you have Silent Choice or another switchable exhaust system? If so, this is a known cause of reversion on 525EFI's due to the water dump in the tail being too close to the collector in the header and the overlap of the cam, sucks that water right back in. A valve issue could be another. Idling on the trailer with the boat too level, etc..
Look inside the front of the collector, it should be nice and black and velvety.. if there are water streaks in there, that would be signs of reversion.
I would start with the header test first. If that is negative, then report back and we can start to narrow it down but don't run the boat. You need to get that milky oil out of there and find the cause so you don't trash the motor.
As for the headers, you don't need to send them to CMI, you can easily pressure test them yourself. You just need a few fittings, an air compressor and a big rubbermaid tub (32 gal or bigger). Heres how.
You get two 1" rubber caps (I use the rubber furniture stoppers that go on the bottom of chair legs, they work perfectly) and put those on the jumper hose bung on the top and the water inlet tube on the distribution rail and tighten them with hose clamps. Then you need some fittings to attach your air hose to the 3/4" NPT inlet on the trailing end of the distribution rail. Use teflon tape when screwing in your fittings as you want the header to be air-tight for the test. Fill the rubbermaid tub with the hottest water you can stand, submerge the header in the water rocking it back and forth to ensure that the primaries are entirely filled with water and there is no air trapped in the exhaust passages at all. Then pressurize to 65 PSI and look for bubbles... Don't pressurize to more than 65 PSI, this is double the normal water pressure and is enough to find even pinhole leaks. Anything higher and you will blow the caps off. If you have a leak, it will be very obvious.
The second possibility is reversion and a few possible causes. Do you have Silent Choice or another switchable exhaust system? If so, this is a known cause of reversion on 525EFI's due to the water dump in the tail being too close to the collector in the header and the overlap of the cam, sucks that water right back in. A valve issue could be another. Idling on the trailer with the boat too level, etc..
Look inside the front of the collector, it should be nice and black and velvety.. if there are water streaks in there, that would be signs of reversion.
I would start with the header test first. If that is negative, then report back and we can start to narrow it down but don't run the boat. You need to get that milky oil out of there and find the cause so you don't trash the motor.
06-22-2015 | 09:42 AM
#5
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Posts: 1,754
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From: Long Island, NY
I had CMI Gen-X on my 38 Fountain and they were fine but only had them one season before I sold the boat. The CMI Gen-X will definitely fit and Hardin makes a Hurricane Lite with a CMI flange that should bolt right up to your existing tails, so both will likely fit. I saw the Hardins at the Miami Boat Show last year and they looked very solid but unfortunately, there's just not a lot of people that have experience with them. The Hardins also have a welded distribution rail versus the Gen-X which have rubber jumper hoses which I'm not crazy about but all things considered, if it were me, I'd go with the Gen-X.
