[Public-list] Original Muffler Replacement

[Bill Newman]

I have sent a few emails regarding replacing my 40 year old black iron, asbestos wrapped exhaust pipe and cast iron muffler in the stern locker and am grateful for the useful advice from Mike Lehman and Roger Kingsland.  The exhaust has been a cause of some concern, regarding a failure at the wrong time for the past couple of seasons. 

 Well today, I removed everything and with the following results.  The bolts attaching the pipe to the manifold which I expected wouldn't move with anything short of a miracle, turned readily with moderate pressure on a socket wrench.  I then cut the pipe where it attached to the muffler, removed it and cut off a piece of the pipe at the front with the exhaust flange.  Again, a surprise, the black iron pipe still had it orignal wall thickness.  I carefully removed some of the asbestos covering and no apparent rust.  The inside was, of course, carbon coated but seemed sound.  The cast iron muffler which weighed a ton also seemed solid as a rock.  

This is an obvious advantage of the boat having never been in salt in its life time.  So in hindsight I probably could have left it alone, but now the new installation will remove concern about an inopportune failure and remove some weight from aft.  

So, once again the old guys at Whitby seemed to know what they were doing.

Bill Newman
Marion Rose III #233
 1176932738.0