Johnson 115 4 stroke - hole in the exhaust manifold

I have a 19' center console with a 2003 115 hp 4 stroke Johnson (Suzuki) that pushes her well and hasn't given me any trouble until the last year. It started not idling well, especially after it was warm. Then, it really started acting badly!  I almost got into trouble near the outflow of a certain nuclear power plant, when I lost power, and then was almost swept into some of the local infrastructure.

I took it to Newport Marine in Newport News, VA. They looked it over and couldn't figure what was wrong. They were extremely fair about it and said that they wouldn't charge me since they couldn't diagnose it. Now that's admirable! Scott at Newport suggested Sports Marine on 17 because they're a Suzuki dealer and they have the computer that could interface for diagnosis.

So, reluctantly, I went to Sports. The guy told me that my wiring harness was fried and he replaced it with a used on. He also told me as an afterthought that I had a hole in my exhaust manifold but that he slapped some Marine Tech in there which "should hold up for a good long time".  So I paid him the $500+ and went on my way. It worked fine for about two runs and then acted up again. It idled terribly and then when I slowed I smelled burning plastic and so I shut it down and got towed in. Good thing!

I went back to Newport and told them about what Sports told me and asked them to check it out. They did and said that sure enough, I have a hole in the manifold and no Marine Tech to be found anywhere!  They charged me $30 for this look and gave me an estimate of $1000 for parts and $1000 for labor. Said that the power-head had to be removed to do this job. Okay, so now we're getting somewhere. This actually sounds very fair since this is a major job.  Newport Marine is a great outfit and I'd love to have them do the work, but, I did't have 2 grand lying around.

My father-in-law, Steve, a retired nuclear pipe fitter was convinced that we could do this job so, I ordered the parts. MarineEngine.com had all the parts for $1149 total. I also had to borrow an engine hoist to pull the power head. Oh boy, this makes me a nervous, but what the hell. I can't afford to pay to have the job done so might as well go for it!

Here are some pictures with the lower engine covers removed:

Starboard side. The exhaust manifold or adapter or whatever is the large piece in the middle between the powerhead and the lower unit.. This is the undamaged side.

 Port side, you can see the damage, just about in the center of the photo there's an allen plug and the hole is around that. You can also see the melted (second) wiring harness. It's not completely melted through (Thank God). It seems that only the tape melted, however it's hard to tell because some of the wires are melted together with the tape.

Port side backed up to see the entire powerhead that was lifted off.  You might also notice that the exhaust manifold attaches the motor at it's upper part.  I thought we might also have to remove the lower unit. Ultimately, we had to secure it on it's top portion once the manifold was removed.

Port side. Close ups of the damage

 Valve cover on rear of motor had to be removed since it overlaps powerhead and exhaust manifold.

 Overlap shown here.

The Seloc manual has nothing about an exhaust manifold, which I find baffling since it's such an important and significant portion of the engine. So, I ordered an OMC service manual ($75 with shipping).  That was money well spent!  

6 April Update:

The Johnson Service Manual had it all. It showed specifically how to remove and replace all of the parts. There were lots of steps, but the detailed manual gave me more confidence to tackle the task.  One thing that I found funny about all this were the discrepancies in the nomenclature.  In the service manual the main part that I need is called "the engine holder". On the Marine Engines. com website where I purchased the parts the same part is called the "exhaust adapter".  Go figure.

10 April Update:

I started the motor one last time before the repair job. 

15 April Update:

Last week we broke it down. It was nice to have good people helping with this.  We removed the intake manifold, the fuel injectors, the valve cover, spark plugs, and all of the electrical and physical connections and then we lifted the powerhead and the pesky piece of you-know-what "engine holder" that caused the problems in the first place.  Here are the picture proofs.  The only snafu we had was a large bolt that went through the engine holder in the vicinity of the damage that threaded into the powerhead. This bolt came free of the power head but was stuck in the engine holder. It took Sam, Steve and I using a map-gas torch, a hammer, Kroll Oil, a punch, and a ratchet simultaneously for about 45 minutes to free up the bolt that also had to be replaced to the tune of $10, for a bolt!

and since I didn't have the parts yet...I took Sunday and went fishing...in a lake!

found some interesting reading on the subject.  Seems to be a pretty common problem. Also, I need to look carefully at my oil pan...

http://www.marineengine.com/boat-forum/showthread.php?376579-Engine-holder-problem-anyone-else/page2

April 21, 2013

I kind of did a freak out double take when I got the "engine holder"!  Got the new part and it looks identical except for a major difference that I wasn't expecting!! There's a hole with bearings that isn't in the old one!  

Here are the pictures:

This is the old one:

...and here's the new one. Notice the bearings on the left side? This means the crank case will be open to the environment!  I called Boats.net where I ordered the part and stayed on hold for 45 minutes. I thought I would have to call the credit card company.  I checked the part numbers and the replacement part numbers. I bugged Robert who is the mechanic at VIMS, and I bugged Scott at Newport Marine. Both of these fellas are awesome and I really appreciate their time.

Anyhow, I got home and Steve came over and we looked at it and pondered it and looked through the other pile of parts that I had ordered and then I started to think about one of them that looked like it had a sealed allen bolt that looked like it would fill the hole in the bearings. Then Steve was looking at it too. We both got very quiet and started fiddling with it. Next thing I knew, I said, "maybe I don't have to stop payment on the credit card, do I?"  Yep, there's another design change.  Not only is the steel plug absent, but also, the shifter linkage is configured totally different! On the previous model it was bolted to the bottom of the engine holder and it was all exterior. On the new model the splined shaft links with the female component that is screwed into the bearings that are bathed in the crankcase oil above.  I think this is actually an improvement after all!  

Also, here's the redesign where the steel plug used to be.  That steel plug has caused a lot of heartache for owners of the 90, 115, and 140 HP models from 2001 to 2005.  It's a damn shame for OMC, and the hundreds of people with this same drama that I've been having.

So, we put it all back together.  It was easier than I had imagined. I labeled all of the wires, which I recommend, but they were almost dummy-proof because each plug was unique.

Ran it on the hose and shifted through the gears. I gotta hand it to Steve for pushing this through to fruition!  We started at 9am and had it all together and running by 4.  Great day!  As Steve said, "not bad for a couple of dudes who don't know what they're doing!"
Video Proof:

and with the covers..

and finally, I took it for a spin yesterday. It runs better than ever!

If you have the same problem, and fix it yourself, I wish you all the success!!