Oh man, I remember this
project. So this was 3.5 years ago, we've since moved back to land and
sold the
boat (always the plan).
I'd be interested to see an example of the too-cold exhaust gases causing a clog in the exhaust. I can see the logic, but the headers on this engine literally pass through the
coolant reservoir, so it seems like Universal/Westerbeke wasn't too worried about keeping the exhaust temps up. Also, if my
DIY heat shield is keeping
cabin temps roughly the same as the fiberglass tape, then I think almost by definition, it is also keeping exhaust gas temps roughly the same.
Since I have real
internet now, here are some pictures of the problem/fix. Unfortunately looks like I didn't get any pictures of the
DIY heat shield, but it's basically a small box of aluminum flashing that clamps around the exhaust pipe with maybe a 1/2" air gap and covers the same areas that were covered by the fiberglass tape.
Pipe wasn't cracked or holed, it was completely severed into 2 halves with maybe an 1/8" gap between them. The fiberglass tape was the only thing containing the exhaust pressure (which is to say, it wasn't).
Literally duct table and bailing wire. It did leak, but dramatically cut down on the amount of exhaust entering the
cabin. Allowed us to run the engine for 5 min at a time without fear of starting a fire.
New pipe assembled prior to install.