Just tore down my engines to the get freshen up. On my engines I have Gil dry exhaust. When I took off the exhaust manifold water came out of #8 cylinder, on both engines. There is no sign of rust in the cylinder. The water that was in the cylinder was clean and carbon was still on the piston. This is on both engines. No other cylinders show water in them. The oil is as black as can be. And the Gil manifolds and pipes are only a year old. One thing I've noticed is that it didn't have the turbulator rings installed. Is this necessary for dry exhaust? Any idea's why the water is coming in? Thanks.

You should pressure test the manifolds. It's easy to do with a garden hose and a plug, when the manifolds are off the engine.

I would call Gil/Corsa. Ive been told that the turbulator rings also stop condensation from running back into the manifolds. Even with dry pipes, the difference in temp will cause a loit of condensation to form in the pipes and this runs down the riser into the manifolds.

That's what I was thinking of. All the Gils I've come across, they had the turbulator ring. But they were all wet systems. My dry system does not. Anybody run the rings in a dry application?

I did in my 311 which was dry.

In my opinion Gil's turbulator should ALWAYS be used with their system or ANY OTHER system that uses the same flange pattern. The Turbulator was the biggest reason that Mercury Hi-Performance made Gil standard equipment on many of their motors from the late 80's to late 90's. It does not matter whether your running a wet or dry system, the condensation problem that the turbulator solves exists in ALL marine exhaust systems no matter who made the exhaust system or if its a wet or dry system.

Here is an explanation of what the turbulator does that I copied from Gil's web site (Hope this helps):

What is an Exhaust Turbulator?

Because marine exhaust systems typically exit the engine upward, against gravity, water in the exhaust pipe can fall back into the engine. This can warp the exhaust valves, freeze the piston rings, and generally corrode and reduce the life of the engine. Minor occurrences happen each time the engine is turned off! The severity of these occurrences depends on:

How cold the exhaust pipe is.
Cam Overlap.
Time at idle speed.
How long since the engine has been run; soak time.
This phenomenon, known as "a product of combustion", is believed to be a major cause of marine gasoline engine wear causing premature mortality. This effect has always been present but has been accentuated recently by the more common use of high overlap cams

THIS NEW INVENTION PREVENTS WATER FROM EXHAUST GAS CONDENSATION FROM RE-ENTERING THE HOT ENGINE.

Normally, at idle and slow speeds, water condensation, which forms on the cooled exhaust pipe surface, can run by the force of gravity back into the engine through the exhaust valves. Indeed, water droplets have been observed traveling upstream at the wall, especially with engines having high overlap cams.

The GIL EXHAUST TURBULATOR causes the water to be re-entrained in the exhaust flow in two ways: First, a turbulence is caused at the wall which scrubs the water off of the wall back into the mainstream; Second, any water which reaches the hot ring will flash to steam since the ring is at elevated temperature from the impinging exhaust gases.

The GIL EXHAUST TURBULATOR does not cause any loss of power since it is located at the quarter wave length from the exhaust valve; in fact, the ring causes a sharper reflection due to its sharp edged orifice configuration.

The GIL EXHAUST TURBULATOR is constructed of stainless steel ensuring long life and proper heating due to low thermal conductivity.

U.S. Patent Number 5,133,185

Psychostroker:
Thank you for the post. I was leaning towards this, but needed somebody to explain it to me. I order the rings tonight.