Cooling system: OMC vs. Chris Craft

[peedee]

Several things come to mind. Why are the manifolds cracked - overheating or worn out? You could weld them. JB Weld works if it does not get too hot and does not have high pressure. If they overheated then what else is damaged. Is your water pump bad, etc.
I looked at the boats and could see one that looked like it had Barr manifolds and the other was interesting and I wonder if it is a closed system ( the coolant stays in a loop with a heat exchanger ). No need to drain the blocks in the winter and not much risk of overheating. I am not familiar with those newer designs. I would go to the original design assuming it is a closed loop system. I have the older V6 with the log manifolds which are fine but it is hard to get to the petcocks to drain the block and that assumes you remember to drain it before the first hard freeze cause they surely will freeze and crack if you give them half a chance. I do not recall seeing much on ebay about CrisCraft manifold parts but I peruse the OMC list. You need to get a parts manual for your boat (easier said than done)to get some idea of the way it is put together from the schematic and to get some part numbers so you can call some of the dealers looking for the parts. You might gather some information from someone on a dealer call. I deal mostly with SeaWay out of Seattle but there are plenty others out there like Crowley. I bet whatever cris craft did was an improvement over the previous design and I would try and stay true to it. Hope this helps. TK

[bchowk]

Alex,

I think you have a 225BVC, correct?

Interesting question...not being very familiar with the Chris Craft Part numbers, and without having ever looked at a chris craft manual; I'm a little blind in how they compare...

I replaced my manifolds using the Barr replacements years ago. The old ones were just rusted through and brittle. Anyway, turns out that I had to buy new rear elbows as well because the replacements were a little different from the stock ones....

If it were me...I'd take a good long look at the Barr replacements and compare them with the old ones you have, do the bolt patterns on the end look like they are even close?....The chris craft ends (on the front) do look different, however, looks like there is still a hose going from the water pump op to the thurmostat housing and two hoses (on each side) to the manifolds..On the back it looks like there is still a hose coming from the intermediate outdrive unit going into the rear elbow (to get water from the impellor) through the manifold up to the thurmostat housing.

My point is, while they LOOK different I think they work basically the same....you should be able to maintain your thurmostat housing and maybe re-use some of the elbows, worst case you'd have to buy the OMC manufold ends...but of course you'd want to look at the Chris craft manual cooling system diagram to make sure you had everything flowing as it should.

Perhaps, some pictures of your old manifold with ends removed and a few shots of the elbows / cap ends would shed some light?

Good luck

[bchowk]

another great question....I guess I used the "log style" replacement.

I wish they had a picture of the END of the BARR manifold...might help you figure out which would work better in your application.

good luck

[bchowk]

By the way...no doubt in my mind that either manifold will fit the exhaust ports on the engine (the old man is right about that). The question is, what will it require for the water to flow through them (and the rest of the engine) properly? This is where pictures and a manual would be most helpful....

Looking at the Chris Craft section on Gull-wing.net. It looks like the square BARR manifold is the one you want...but that is just a GUESS....if comparisons with the available images and what you currently have proove inconclusive; I would be taking a good long look at the return policy from Go2Marine before choosing one.

You said you were Italian, are you and the boat physically in Italy? Does that complicate the parts buying process?