My Friend Rusty!

Not Rusty, this is Russel!

For my entire life, I have been a glass half full person. I can usually see the good in everything. But no way did I see how rust could be a good thing. How can rust in anyway be seen as my friend. Really? Well.

This spring, when you got WECATHEM going, her manifold had a high pressure leak. The manifold had been cleaned and presure tested, but after some runs a small leak started. I cleaned it up and applied some JB weld to it. Which helped a ton. But a small area was still leaking.

Now, it would only leak at around 2700 RPM. Which is extreme ish for the W. But a funny thing has happened over the summer. The leak is gone. And it appears that the only explanation is my new pal RUSTY! Yup, as the summer has marched on, a small amount of rust must have closed up the small hairline crack.

Now the only problem is, since Rusty seems to be helping me out, is keeping the rest of his family out of my boats. Like the Griswold’s, the rest of the family could be rather a pain!

 

10 replies
  1. Bilge Rat
    Bilge Rat says:

    If only the copper head gaskets would rust up, maybe your blown gasket problem would be solved.

  2. jim g
    jim g says:

    Why not just replace the freeze plug. The one in the picture has been so over compressed that its past its tightest point.

    • Matt
      Matt says:

      I had tapped in the freeze plug thinking that was the issue. It was kinda of a leak hard to find, cause it would travel to the elbow and I thought that was loose. So had the Boatress drive and watch and dry. It came from behind. The JB weld of course is a temp fix. But my thought is, if its holding run it. Its not like there are new manafolds out there. And yes we use salt away. I just wrote this because its the one time that leaving something alone seemed to fix its self. Rusty is lazy!

  3. floyd r turbo
    floyd r turbo says:

    Rust, the scourge of the car hobby, but friend of the boater?? Do you have a replacement manifold lined up behind the scenes, and even then you never know its condition, could be worse. Could the passages be coated like a gas tank process for extending service? Especially in your salt environment.

  4. tom
    tom says:

    i don’t know if that plug is over compressed or not,but it sure looks like that’s where the leak starts.i’d pull that plug and replace it with a new one ,with some sealer on it,after cleaning that groove out real well. isn’t that a van ness rebuild? not that sh– doesn’t happen, but i’ve slammed plenty of those plugs into rusty manifolds and they’re not that hard to seal.as far as jb welds,when done with care,can be as permanent as anything.just my 2 cents.

Comments are closed.