Wet Exhaust Hose Replacement

Hi all:

A story and a few pics about wet exhaust hose...

Since Satori moved to Los Angeles in March this year its been all about controlling water and leaks.

The first leak was on the electric water heater element - easy cheap fix.

The second leak was the water tanks... their fixed but not cheap or easy.

Then sanding and removing and replacing the caulking on the teak decks... again, not cheap or easy.

So I felt I had made good progress on controlling leaks...

But no, I had a chance to look around in the lazerette underway while my brother was at the helm... and heck if there is a puddle under the port water tank!

A couple of moments looking around and what do I see?

A fast trickle of water dripping from the bottom of the exhaust hose!

And of course this was to be my first weekend cruise to beautiful Emerald Bay at Catalina with the Buccaneer Yacht Club... No go with a leaky exhaust hose.

So I create some working room by moving the port water tank a bit - and sure enough... the 30-year old wet exhaust hose is damaged up near the bulkhead where it makes a tight radius turn...

So its a must replace.

No patching that thing.

Out it goes...

And it did not go easy...

Took me two hours contorted in the aft end of the engineering crawl space. Hopefully a pro would make it look easy - not easy for me.

Thankfully LA has many resources and replacement material was readily available.

Decided to go with a fiberglass 90 degree elbow rather than curving the new hose through the bulkhead like the old one.

And in the light of day, the old hose was horribly damaged.

Note to the right in the photo the rust under the original protective plastic... that would be in the aft direction heading down to the low point of the sweep. Bet its been leaking for a while.

(Ok, I'm a sloppy painter - the splurp of primer from painting the underside of the deck)

Installation of the new hose went pretty easy...

I pre installed the elbow as access would be difficult way off in the corner of the crawl space.

And that is pretty much it...

Started up and only one of the four connection points needed tightening.

And...

ONE LESS LEAK TO WORRY ABOUT!

Yeash... does it really have to be thisa way?

Nicely done.

Good solution. Can you buy the f/g elbow off the shelf?

CarlinLA said:

And that is pretty much it...

Started up and only one of the four connection points needed tightening.

And...

ONE LESS LEAK TO WORRY ABOUT!

Yeash... does it really have to be thisa way?

Click to expand...

That's a very nice clean install. Love the 90 elbow idea.

Nice job! Good for you taking care of a minor leak before it became a major problem, not to mention the exhaust fumes in the boat.

BruceK said:

Good solution. Can you buy the f/g elbow off the shelf?

Click to expand...

In the USA there readily available from many marine parts distributors. Made by a company called Centek. They also make fiberglass exhaust pipe, lift mufflers, and other exhaust components. Have used their products on several of my boats.

Ted

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, that 90-degree elbow was off the shelf.

The parts came from Captains Locker in Long Beach... that place looked like a well stocked engineer/mechanics source.

Nice how-to there. You want to be very carefull as to how tightly you fasten those clamps to that fiberglass elbow and other FG parts, especially if it is not equipped with crush rings. Some PO wasn't in my case, and it evolved into an expensive fix.

A couple exhaust questions:

1- When are crush sleeves required?
2- When are T-Bolt clamps required?
3- Is there ABYC standard for wet exhaust systems?

One of the reasons I dislike wire reinforced hose, the wire rusts, expands and punctures the laminates in the hose. Now this was a 30 years old hose in a tight radius bend, so exception noted, but if an installation does not call for wire reinforcement (anti collapse) then I believe it's more a liability than an asset.

These questions need to be qualified with "required by whom?

1- When are crush sleeves required? Most class, Lloyds, ABS, RINA, etc. Not aware of any other requirements like USCG or ABYC

2- When are T-Bolt clamps required? Not aware of any requirements, but maybe above a certain diameter as a class requirement.

3- Is there ABYC standard for wet exhaust systems? I'm sure, here's the standard:

https://law.resource.org/pub/us/cfr/ibr/001/abyc.P-01.1993.pdf

Crush sleeves are nice but not necessary, though top end builders and exhaust companies use them. In fact, I bought mine from Hatteras, OEM now, but not in 1981. They need to be bedded in high temp epoxy so you don't get crevice corrosion. The key is not to torque down the clamps too hard, and T-bolts are prone to this if you are not careful.