After the engineer from Rockport Yanmar Dealer Gatewood’s did the engine service last year, he told me that the elbow had a leak, and that it was a simple job for me to replace it myself. So I bought an elbow and gasket and put it on the to-do list.

The job came to the top of the list.

It was difficult to remove. The bolt heads were corroded, and the bolts were seized. And I could not see where the leak could come from. I cleaned it up, and convinced myself that it was sound. Running the engine, I saw the leak, so I had to tackle it.

To remove it meant cutting it off bit by bit, so that I could get a mole-grip locked onto the bolt heads. I used a Dremel with a metal cutting blade:

The new Elbow, with new exhaust host:

After doing this, I found an article online, telling me that the elbow is a consumable item, to be chnaged between 200 and 500 hours, or every 2-5 years. So I then read the Yanmar manual, which reinforced this, on the low side. So I will remove the elbow and inspect it every 6 months. I used a small amount of anti sieze grease in the bolts (new 316 bolts and spring washers), applied to the part of the bolts and washers that are not screwed into the water mixer.