Replacing Risers/Elbows and Exhaust Manifolds on a Ford/OMC Cobra 5.8 Ltr

[Lou C]

I have seen it both ways, some with the right-angle fitting some with a straight one.

 

[Horigan]

Why use a 90 Deg fitting for the hoses into the exhaust? That aims it up. The thermostat housing where the hose will go is on the right or left, horizontally. Leaving that alone makes it nearly identical to the OEM layout and the original hoses fit perfectly.

I have a half closed cooling system, with the raw water heat exchanger output coming out high in the front of the engine and splitting down to each exhaust manifold. On my engine there is limited room behind the power steering pump to route the stock OE hose with a pre-form bend at the manifold end. So for me, having the 90 makes routing much easier. So for a full raw water system an elbow may not be necessary. Should have mentioned that.

 

[KM7]

I have a half closed cooling system, with the raw water heat exchanger output coming out high in the front of the engine and splitting down to each exhaust manifold. On my engine there is limited room behind the power steering pump to route the stock OE hose with a pre-form bend at the manifold end. So for me, having the 90 makes routing much easier. So for a full raw water system an elbow may not be necessary. Should have mentioned that.

Thanks. I'll stick with the stock, straight in hose fitting.

 

[Lou C]

If/when I repower this boat that's the way I am going, definitely a half closed cooling system, no way would I want to run salt water through a nice reman engine, and closed cooling is far easier to winterize, you can use the winterizing tank with a pump to pressurize the flow instead of crawling around like a fool in the bilge to get at the dang drain plugs.
that is the part that I HATE about having an inboard of any kind, as much as I like simple GM cast iron OHV engines, GM intended them to have pressurized cooling systems, with antifreeze, with corrosion inhibitors!

I/O ownership requires two things for lower maintenance headaches:
closed cooling (longer engine life, better resale, easy winterizing)
remote oil filter mount
on my boat this would allow me to do the winterizing and oil change without pulling out the rear seats.
should be standard!