How did he say to plug water outlets in risers?

He said the risers are definitly more tricky, but to use a plumbers ball and run water through the other end. Not perfect but about the only thing i can do

he did say its pretty rare to see em crack even an older system like mine especially in fresh water

One thing you can do. Seperate riser from manifold. Set riser up so exhaust outlet,is straight up. Fill riser slowly. You get a bit more water weight which acts as pressure. And you can see in the inlet side. But the water volume your engine is getting in is difficult to get from exhausts, especially cuz it wasn't an overnight thing. When engine is running most of water leaking in exhaust gets blown out the exhaust.

My thoughts exactly but im just doing what he asked. Im not doing this again and im making sure everything is verified before i start this thing up again

Checked each manifold. I put a hose barb in one water port and plugged the others. Hooked the garden hose up to the barb and let her rip. Our city water is at least 30# and i didnt see a single drop after 5 min. Still need to check risors. Im wondering if i am asking for trouble trying to separate the risor from the manifold? Im sure it hasnt been apart for a long time.

Nah, they are stainless. They didn't rot. Hook hoses back up between man-riser. Stand upright and hose test. Looks like the only way to pressure test those risers would be to weld those water exit holes shut. And I don't think this riser type has a rep for cracking and leaking.

I use a plumbers test ballon to seal off the water exits. It's not perfect but gets the job done.

CHERNE Multi-Size 3 in. - 4 in. Test-Ball Plug-276348 - The Home Depot

Tested the port side riser best i could. Nothing noticable that i could tell. I would assume if this was a riser issue it would be pretty easy to see it with as much water as it had in the short amount of time. Will check other side tonght.

Havent heard from builder since monday. Have a call in to get an update. Hopefully he has found something.

The odds of it being a SSM manifold leaking are pretty slim.

I agree. Seems like u dont hear about them failing very often. Why is ssm not as prone as some of the others out there?