I’m Exhausted
The Lugger 1276A on Roxia has 4,200 hours. I think the muffler is original and I noticed some soot on the ceiling of the engine room. This is not what you want to see in your engine room. I took the insulation off the dry exhaust and found a large hole in the muffler. I called my go-to exhaust man Scott Conahan at National Marine Exhaust. We measure the muffler 16” diameter with 5” in and out attached to 6” exhaust and 10” by 8 bolt flange. One manufacturer was 8-10 weeks lead time and the other was 3-4 weeks. We choose the latter.
The muffler arrived while we were cruising so I planned to remove on June 28th knowing we would not have the boat put back together for July 4th. I was at Scott’s shop first thing on Tuesday June 29th so he could build a fixture and weld up the flanges for the exhaust system. Thursday morning Scott sent me pictures of the new exhaust welded up and ready. I drove to his shop and picked up the muffler and they had even installed the insulation on the muffler to save me time. Eight hours later the exhaust was back together and we went cruising on July 2nd!
Can’t say enough about the work done by National Marine Exhaust.
The pictures below tell the whole story. The hole was pretty large and I patched it with stainless steel mesh and marinetex so I could use Roxia while the muffler was ordered and shipped. When I told Scott I hope it holds he said “It’s probably better than it was before…”. It didn’t last that long and by the time I removed the muffler it was almost completely gone.
The hole wouldn’t fix itself. The patch materials-don’t waste your time. The patch that didn’t work. It looked good until it had 500 degree exhaust. All the insulation off ready to unbolt. M18 Impact gun is worth every penny. Bolts loose and hangers removed. Muffler removed, ready to clean flanges. The exhaust was hanging by a small section. This thing is about ¾ my weight. It was all I could do to get it out. Notice the crack. Old muffler used to build fixture. The bolt pattern has to be exact. New muffler all welded up. The welds are beautiful. Bolted up…I need a rest. Ready to CRUISE!
With the boat finished we were able to catch some fireworks. I started the project at 10am Monday morning and finished 8pm Thursday night thanks to the great work by Scott Conahan and his crew at National Marine Exhaust in Marysville Washington.
Posted on July 5, 2021, in Cruising Life, Engine Room. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
Scott and his crew always go the extra mile. As a person, I would say Scott is excellent at anything to which he puts his mind and skills.