I have an 01 horizon f/s. Recently it has developed a lound knock in the rear of the engine. I took it to a shop that told me the engine had a lower end knock. I removed then engine (3.0 VP with an sx 2.16 drive) and rebuilt the lower end. Everything was replaced back to factory spec. Then engine was bench ran and made no noises. Placed the engine back in the boat and when taken back out to the water still had the knock. I did not break down any of the lower unit parts. We did notice a leak in the exhaust bellows (about a 1/2" hole in between the ribs). I have no idea of where to start to look for this or what to start to do to diagnose the problem. When we removed the engine we did notice alot of grease on the engine coupler. It looked like it had been slung from inside the splines. Also how hard is it to drop the lower unit and rebuild it all. Any help I can get on this would be a big thanks including places to buy parts and common parts to replace on these. THANK YOU!
