1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Reinforcing the Exhaust Parts

I’m juggling many different things on the Roamer refit right now, but all of them are essential must-do items if I’m going to splash later this year. Getting the Cummins 6CTA Diamonds attached to the exhaust system, fuel lines, and raw water are three of those things. Some exhaust parts arrived a while back, so it’s time to reinforce the fiberglass tubes where the clamps squeeze the hose. Without reinforcement, the clamps can cause the fiberglass to crack.

400 hours on the turbos, which both look good inside

New exhaust anti-crush sleeves and clamps

First, use a grinder to rough up the exterior of the clamp sleeves

Next, a die grinder roughs up the inside of the exhaust tubes

High temp epoxy bonds the sleeve to the elbow

One down, one to go

Muffler will need crush sleeves, too

In the pic above, the muffler is sitting on a tray I made using scrap aluminum sheet from the aft deck enclosure and 6063 aluminum angle. Because I’m using Centek waterlift mufflers, I wanted to position the muffler as low as possible so the spill-over point from the muffler to the exhaust outlet is lower than the spill-over point of the dry portion of the exhaust riser. That will make the exhaust system inherently safe by making it virtually impossible for sea water to back up into the dry part of the exhaust. I’ll be welding that muffler tray in soon.

The stick shows the direction the exhaust hose will have to take to meet the riser

While the epoxy cures for the crush sleeves in the exhaust elbows and outlets, I’m wrapping up fitting the muffler trays. But there’s other stuff going on, too.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Relocating the Fuel Tank Fills