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Hi Tom,

I recently (last spring) made the same repairs after mine corroded through at the exhaust nipple (most common point of failure on these, I think).  After a lot of looking around and comparison, I found that having a local welder fabricate the riser was much less expensive than getting one from CD (that did include shipping to BC, so may be less to ship somewhere in the US, but that may still be a cost factor).  He was able to size and replicate the riser, no problem. 

Other parts I bought included the flange, flange gasket (not shown in the photo), hump hose, thermal wrap, and misc new hoses and clamps.

Cost to fabricate the riser was about $450 CAD, and the whole project was about $850 CAD.  Bottom line was that, at least for me, having the riser fabricated by a local welder was well worth it.  Hope that helps.

thanks for the notes on the clamps - I'll look at getting some.

In terms of hot water, I checked today and I had tepid water (definitely warmer than the cold)... I'm double check when I'm actually cruising and the engine temp does get a chance to get up to full op temp for a while, and enough time to heat the full tank.  Both of the hoses on the loop were hot.

When I turned on the water heater on the AC panel when I plugged in to shore power I got good hot water!

thanks guys,

I had lent my hand pump out (of course, just when needed it), but a borrowed 12V fluid pump did the trick - I was surprised by how much air it pushed through, and I must not have been getting it all just by pouring into the raised 3/8" hose from the Tstat reservoir.

Also confirmed my suspicion that the coolant leak I had was from that hard-to-reach 7/8" return hose on the back of the Hx (ironically, when I took the Hx off, I had disconnected that hose at the elbow at the front of the engine, and left it on the Hx to make it easier... but then decided to replace it with new).  Just glad it wasn't leaking at the flange.

Ran at the dock for about 45 minutes today and engine temp only got to just under 160, no leaks, and no real hot spots on the new riser -- looking alright.  I'm hoping to get out to give it a proper run tomorrow out of the marina to confirm everything is good before a planned 4-nighter this weekend 

photo is of the new riser just before I adjusted the wrap one last time and installed.

Thanks - ran through some of these to further isolate the issue... including removing both WH hoses and creating a short bypass loop - definitely had good flow from the pump.

In any case - third time was the charm... I managed to borrow a 12V fluid pump, and put a lot of coolant through the WH loop (there was air coming through for quite a while for some reason), then reconnected and that got it.  I ran the engine, including under load, at the dock for over 1/2 hour, and never did quite get to 160 degrees.

I was finally able to check how the exhaust riser replacement was working, which was the whole point, and was very discouraged to see a pretty good coolant leak onto the area of the aft port engine mount.  Thankfully, though, it doesn't look like it's from the exhaust flange, but from the fresh water return hose connection on the Hx... ran out of time today, but will go back to tighten and confirm that tomorrow (and also investigate why, after running the engine for as long as I did today, I didn't have hot water... ).

thanks again for the suggestions

Thanks Ron, and all.

I did change to a silicone hump hose and the hose from the vented loop to the injection nipple.  Installation of the riser took some time yesterday, but I got it done...

However - after reinstalling the heat exchanger (and replacing the 7/8 hoses) and refilling the coolant, the engine is overheating.  I have read multiple posts about how to burp the system, and followed the advice there... I filled through the 3/8" hose from the thermostat reservoir until I had coolant flowing from the nipple there.  After running a short time, the engine was up over 180.  I tried other fixes... I ran the engine with the cap off, and opened the petcock on top of the thermostat housing; I throttled up to between 2500 and 3000 RPM a few times (as was getting some bubbling at the petcock). 

I also re-did the fill from the hose to the water heater loop, just in case I hadn't gotten it reconnected quickly enough and had introduced some air there when I filled it.  (I don't have a fluid pump right now as I lent mine out, but I'm pretty confident the water heater loop is fluid-filled... was a good stream coming from the nipple, and we got the 3/8 hose on there quickly).

Was still up to about 200 degrees when I stopped trying yesterday. 

I'm going back today to keep trying to find the issue (perhaps try again a couple of times to open the system and run the engine at elevated RPMP) - but any ideas of why else I might still have an air lock (or other potential issue), or other steps to try?

thanks.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

1) Any place other than Catalina or CD to buy the riser, or any point even spending much time looking? (I was talking to a Marine supply store near me on Vancouver Island, so asked, and they seemed to think there wasn't much option other than ordering from the US, from Catalina or CD)

2) Anyone had any luck with using automotive exhaust weld and/or tape as a temporary fix (i.e. until i can get a full replacement riser, flange, gasket, hump hose and do the full job)? --- kinda dreading the whole process.

1)  Making up your own.  The Old Projects & FAQs (https://www.c34.org/faq-pages/faq.html) have some ideas:

https://www.c34.org/faq-pages/faq-exhaust-pipe.html

2)  The nipple is where they usually go bad.  Yes, muffler tape will tide you over.  From the 101 Topics:
Westerbeke Nipple Source  https://www.westerbeke.com/Product/NIPPLE/299693

thanks for all of the input - has taken a while to get parts, and to have a local welder build a new riser for me, but finally got it today (needless to say, once I had the old one out and unwrapped it was clear that it was done).

Speaking of wrapping - the old riser had 2 layers of fibreglass wrap, and under those a layer of fibreglass "fleece"... it was a lot.  I've got a 2" X 50' roll of exhaust wrap, which I'm thinking should give me 2 layers (with overlapping).  Any input on if that is likely to be enough heat protection? overkill?  Thanks.

Wish I were in the same boat (so to speak)... I just recently started getting exhaust smell in the head and cabin, and investigated two days ago and found an exhaust leak where the raw water injection nipple meets the main body of the riser (and on the other end the threads of the rise at the exhaust flange are pretty rusted away)... looking like I'm going to have to replace the riser - so I've been reading all of the relevant posts over the last couple of days.  A couple of questions:

1) Any place other than Catalina or CD to buy the riser, or any point even spending much time looking? (I was talking to a Marine supply store near me on Vancouver Island, so asked, and they seemed to think there wasn't much option other than ordering from the US, from Catalina or CD)

2) Anyone had any luck with using automotive exhaust weld and/or tape as a temporary fix (i.e. until i can get a full replacement riser, flange, gasket, hump hose and do the full job)? --- kinda dreading the whole process.

Following....

I'm in the same boat :). Left on Monday for a week-long trip, and only got about 5 miles before propulsion dropped considerably... after checking a bunch of things it looks like the clutch on my transmission (Hurth 100 on M35) is worn and slipping - I've got some engagement, and can get a bit of propulsion in forward, and reverse is fine.  I'll be looking around for a replacement (likely ZF 10 from the sounds of things), and will update.  Thanks Dave for a possible start point in WA.