Also, I don't know if any of you have a suggestion, but I am trying to track down a mystery leak from last year.

Originally I thought maybe I should get a go-pro type camera to track it down, but here's what's happening, and maybe one of you has an idea,

At lower speeds, no real issues, but on occasion, I do run up the speed (no one in our group gets too enthused when I open it up) when I do push things up say 55 mph and faster, the bilge pump comes on and yes I see water being pumped out.

A couple of thoughts were;

The seawater pump gaskets. It's happened before, but I have the newer one-piece replacement pump and I do not see any leakage around there usually.
The exhaust manifolds - again some rust and I have some replacements, but do not see any leakage there
The raw water intake. I've tightened the hoses, but maybe there is an issue there
The bellows area this seems less likely because at speed there is not much of it in the water

Anything else that you think I can bench-test to see where the water could be coming from?

Thanks

Make sure all you exhaust hose clamps are squarely on the hose. I had one that was cocked a little and was not sealing the exhaust water at full throttle. I was running about 30# of water pressure at WOT. Loosened the clamp and lined it up and fixed the leak. Drove me crazy for almost 2 seasons.

That's a great suggestion. I always drain the exhaust manifolds when winterizing so that's very possible. Thanks

Quite a long night, completing the wiring, adjusting the floor templates, temporarily removing the bolster seats and installing the side panels.
Unfortunately not quite enough time to compete all the details, just one more night to put most everything together and a few more lingering details.

There's a lot of potential once everything is done.

For now I am pretty happy

Looks awesome!

Probably the last bit I'll get done before I take it up to the lake. Run out of time pretty much. Things went okay tonight, a little easier than I thought and I deserved a night like that. Putting it together, there is a lot more of the restoration to clean up after this summer, but at least all the hard part is done and I can take my time afterwards.

The generic Amazon floor went in okay, no drama. Will see how it holds up.

Things sure felt a tiny bit incomplete during the vacation trip, but everything worked great, all reliable as ever.

Problem is, I still have that annoying leak at high speeds. I used a bit of white powder in the areas which seemed possible candidates Nothing from the water pump or hoses. Nothing from the exhaust manifolds. No leaking around the thermostat housing or oil cooler.

Now I am thinking possibly the Y-Pipe where it goes into the leg. It has to be something that leaks more as the engine and boat speed up.

Puzzling.

Well that was f@king awesome.

I want to thank all the lads that contribute to the forum, because it was this one that helped me get the rusted exhaust manifold off.

I made the mistake of removing the easy bolts first, then thinking everything else would be the same. Well the outboard ones were easier, but the inner ones wouldn't budge.

Eventually I stripped the bolt head partially on three. It took pretty much every trick in the book to get them off. I used heat (bought a new torch with a flex hose for easier aiming) tried nut extractors. That didn't work either.

One of the tips from a member here (can't find the post but remember reading it) was to keep pounding on smaller and smaller sockets, to bite the stripped bolt head.
That, and the heat worked.

Whew.... f@cking eh! Awesome. I will try not to repeat the mistakes on the starboard side.

Looks like the manifolds were due, also after being on the engine since new (1990's)

Soaking rusted stuff with 50/50 acetone and ATF a few days before has helped me out LOTS

That also sounds like a great tip, thanks