BF225 VST cooling bypass

My 2003 BF225 has 1500 hours on it. In 2011 I replaced the VST bowl because a corrosive pinhole was allowing seawater to enter the fuel side from the cooling jacket side. Now here it is 2018 and I am facing the same problem. My boating is in cold water of SE Alaska, and I'm thinking about eliminating this problem by bypassing the cooling jacket on the VST. Does anyone have experience with doing this?

You need the fuel cooler unless you don't idle the engine for extended periods.Engine heat causes vapour lock and hard starting when engine is hot. So probably not a good idea to do away with it

Just thinking out loud here - assuming you are going to replace the bowl again, I would consider pulling off the jacket and painting the insides with one of these new epoxy-based metal primer and paints. It's my understanding they get rock hard and are impervious to saltwater.

Yes, I was thinking about epoxying this bowl that has a very fine pinhole. That would save the whole disassembly. I talked to the epoxy manufacturer and he said very high bond to cleaned metal, as well as high bond to previous coats if I wanted to multicoat it.

I know the pinhole is very small due to the fact I got no water on the last run with the boat (I have devised a method to pump out the VST without removing the lower cowling and have been checking it after each use - this will get me thru the season without a teardown.)

Thanks for your input!

You are probably right. I don't idle much, but all would it take was one time. Thanks for your input!

Probably right. Last fall i pulled the seawater jacket off and epoxied the whole metal side. Seems fine this season.

Use Durbans Formula to get rid of all the salt where their is heat i use Durbans Epoxy heat resistant Formula and cote it 2 or 3 cotes.