H. I. McDunnough
Regular Contributor
I have a 1978 Mariner 40BE 676 that I am trying to put in service. When I first bought it, I had a mechanic look it over. He said it had good compression, but that the plugs were wet. He put new head and cover gaskets on it. I later noticed that they were wet again. He replaced them again, and then, I retorqued it again at the begining of this season.I notice that now my bottom plug is wet. It has been sudgested to me that it is the exhaust cover that is leaking. This is all new to me; I've never messed with such things, but I've done so much to this motor that I'm pretty familiar with it. I'm going to replace the exhaust cover gasket. I'm also planning on replacing the exhaust plate gasket at the bottom of the power head. I noticed some water spray on the intake manifold and the exhaust plate gasket looks like a more likely suspect. I'm ready to order the gaskets. I'm just not sure if it's every thing I need, if I should use gasket sealer, ect., or if I should put never-sieze on the bolts. Well, most importantly, am I doing the right thing? Here's what I'm getting: 2 exhaust cover gaskets; 1 driveshaft housing gasket; 1 upper housing gasket; 1 exhaust tube gasket;and 1 exhaust tube seal.