I am new to the performance boat world, so forgive me, I am learning. What is the best thing to use to seal my exhaust tips to the hull? I had to remove one to fix it and I am not sure what to use to seal it back. Whoever put them on before used the orange gasket sealer and I don't think that's what should be used. Also, should I put some kind of sealer on the transom wood where they cut the hole to keep it dry when washing down the engine compartment?

I filled the gap in mine with black silicon and smoothed it out level. Kind of depends on how big of gap there is. Some have trim rings outside with rubber that seals.
I'm talking about header tails going through the transom. Do you mean tips that are screwed to the transom?

Sealing the cut edge is a good ideal. It can't hurt. I had a transom rot due to raw cut edge around the outdrive in a wellcraft. Factory didn't seal it. I use 3m 4200 on my tails.

Yes I have tips with flapers inside them that are screwed to the hull from the outside.

You could mix a little fiberglass resin up and paint it on the open wood where the holes were made. For the exhaust tips I would just cover the back side of the flange with a good clear silicone and screw them down. Then just wipe around the edge if any ozzes out.

+ 1 on the 3m 4200. Dont let anyone talk you into using the 3m 5200 unless you never want to remove them. The 4200 will also work well to seal the edges of the thru transom hole.

Dont use too much and have some solvent around for cleanup as that stuff can get everywhere.

I ran side tips with built in flappers. The way my integrated platform was configured I didnt like how close the holes would be to the transom assembly. So I ran them just above the waterline (plenty below the riser), and used 5200 to seal it in. They give you screws, but there was not much meat to bite in with the screws so I thru bolted it.

I had to cut oval holes in the side of the boat. Pretty sure I am not removing the tips anytime soon. 5200 worked for me.

Anytime you expose the wood inside the transom seal it up with resin! dont want any way for water to get in there.

Good luck!!

Thank yall for the help, I'll prob have more ?s in the future, it's awesome to have a place to go for help. I'd rather do things myself and know it's done right.

Tube of 3M cant rememer what it was called but any marine store will point you to the stuff. There probably is a small and big tube. you will only need the small tube

4200