Exhaust elbow for Nissan ld28 or repower?

Must be the season for exhaust elbows.

Anyhow, i need an exhaust elbow for my ld28 (Nissan). Trouble is that parts for it are nonexistent. Some have said there is a fabrication shop who will make one but the trouble with that is I am looking at almost 1200 for one. Then I still have an ld28. Which is a a very uncommon marine engine, not real powerful, old, parts scarce, engine. So is now a good time to repower? I have about 2300 hours on it . thoughts?

the fab shop that gave me the price is from NY. Anyone know a good shop?

I looked at a boat with a Chrysler Nissan diesel and that was the final straw, I couldn't find any new part's source and all I did find was used junk. If you can afford it, I vote repower.

AN exhaust elbow , riser , whatever is OTS and hardly expensive.

The hassle is you will need to fabricate a plate that fits your exhaust manifold and is fitted with a normal standard sized pipe fitting.

Hardly a $1000 item at a muffler shop.

Actually, i think that is what i am going to do. I even see a few ways to improve on the old design. I got a buddy who is a welder who said he'd do the welding for me.

The old bolts broke off so i am looking at drilling and tapping anyhow so i just need to fab up a plate...i think i can do this fairly easily. its not an overly complicated shape.

Did you try the Albin owners group on Yahoo? Someone there might have an answer.

A repower is a MAJOR undertaking. Almost always far more is involved than is forseen UNLESS as my dock neighbour got away with last year, it was just a newer version of his old engine and literally a drop in and adjusment.

Yours won't, I'm sure fit into that category.

So even a custom build of a new riser will be FAR,FAR less expensive.

I'm assuming the current engine still runs well. If that is the case repair it.

I wanted to give an update on this.

I have been reading a ton on how wet exhausts work. I had no idea before.

Either way i think i have a DIY solution now that i have a better understanding of how they work.

I have ordered 3'' tubing and am going to cut and weld up an elbow like this one. A major change in design is that the cooling water will be injected into the elbow much farther down the line, near the end where it goes into the rubber exhaust hose. IMHO this has a couple of advantages...for starters its an easier build. Also, this will make it very much unlikely to flood the manifold with sea water if a failure occurs. I will put some heat wrap on it to prevent having a hot section of pipe.

The flange i am just going to cut out of a section of plate...not a huge deal either.

The tubing i am going to use is just mild steel tubing but i think it will last more than a few years (the old lasted 18 years and it was cast). i plan on giving it a coat of exhaust paint both inside and out. I would have liked to use stainless but my welder won't weld it. I suppose i could have had someone do it...

If interested, you could put in a fitting for an EGT gauge.

On one of my 1988 Perkins 6.354's there is a leak at the shaft of the engine shut down leaver on the injector pump (CAV). Can anyone outline the fix for this?

Between shoveling snow and trying to stay warm I had a chance to fab up the elbow. It is as I planned, made of 3inod steel tubing. The flange is 1/8 plate and the water injector is sch 40 3/4in iron pipe. I painted the whole thing, inside and out with high temperature paint and wrapped it in header wrap. I deliberately made the water injector look out to the side abit so I didn't have the heater hose going over top of the elbow.

Any thoughts or feedback?

I vote for re-power.

that was what i had been leaning toward but a few things that changed my mind.

I already know this is not a boat i am going to hang on to long term. It is really too small for us. so at this point the cost just doesn't justify a repower. I have less then $100 in the elbow i built and it entertained me for a few weeks too.

If all goes as planned we will be putting her for sale this fall and shopping next winter. We are on the edge of a life changing event and if it all goes the way we hope we may be looking at something that we will live aboard several days per week year round.

If for some reason we don't sell her or our plans change then i will seriously consider putting a 120 Lehman in...if it fits. if not i may go the other direction and do a 50 HP something or other. I would love the idea of trying to do a dry exhaust on a small engine...all just ideas at this point.

eseyoung,
You did ask about re-powering.

National Marine Exhaust in Marysville WA made me a SS riser/elbow for $750 about 8 years ago. They may have done several for that Nissan engine of yours and they may make steel exhaust parts for less money.

Used lehmans are over rated and over priced. If you want economy talk to FF about International and perhaps other older diesels.

e-bay and Craig's list?

What boat do you have?

I did ask. but because of the reasons above i moved forward with trying to keep the Nissan running.

When i discovered teh problem i did call several places about having a SS one made and i was looking in the $1200-1500 range to have a SS one made by a fab shop. i honestly think that is too much $$$ to put into the Nissan. not because it is a large about of money, but because it would still let me with a red-headed stepchild of a engine that is approaching its 30th birthday. Parts are VERY limited for those old gals. So i took on the process of putting something together myself. It is made of steel but it should last more than a few years in the not so salty water of the Chesapeake.

either way, I do agree about lehmans tending to be a bit over priced. I have an inside source for used Kubota industrial engines so if i do repower i MAY look into what marine upfits are out there for them. i know there are some down in bilges but don't know much about them.

if that isn't viable option i will check out Craigslist and ebay.

BTW the boat in question is an Albin27FC

Built one for one of my SP225 FLs. Used SS 3" and 4" exhaust pipe and elbow. Custom machined the transition piece between the 3" and 4". Cost was less than $500.

Bob