Re: water in th oil
An idea that RubberFrog floated above is valid from my experience. On mine, the riser where it bolted to the port exhaust manifold was not sealing well, so manifold cooling water was getting into the exhaust manifold...which leads to the exhaust valves. With the water level higher in the risers than the valve seats, water can find it's way into the engine cylinders. Now, whether water can find it's way down through the piston rings and oil ring I'm not sure. In my case, the water was indeed in the cylinders as my rpm's would drop as I ran, and it finally would die. Going to restart it...broke the mount on my starter motor since water is not compressable and the starter broke itself from trying so hard.
If the internal ports on the risers have very thin sealing surfaces where the gasket touches, my experience is that it's time to toss them. Sealing them up with JB Weld or something might work for a bit, but with exhaust temps being higher than what JB Weld suggests...I'd say it's a waste of time. I actually did a JB Weld repair on mine...and I did a very good job...but thought better of it before installing them and tossed them in the garbage can instead. Good luck.
