Gasket shavings fell into manifold

[StinkinRenken85]

Hey y’all so I was scraping the old gasket off my exhaust manifold where the elbow connects and some of the gasket may have fallen in the manifold. Probably not a lot... do I have to remove the manifold and flush it with water or something. This the little rubber flakes aren’t going to get sucked into the cylinders and make the pistons lock if I run it will they? Mercruiser 3.0 140r 1985 one piece exhaust intake manifold

 

[achris]

Normal practice it to stuff the hole with a rag so that doesn't happen, but....

If the bits are small and not metallic, you'll be fine to just put it all back together and run it... If you're concerned, just use a vacuum cleaner and suck them out...

Chris.....

 

[StinkinRenken85]

Thanks Chris, yeah I thought of the rag after I already got started...I didn’t think of a vacuum n don’t really give one that’s get in there, glad to know it’s not going to cause a problem since it’s just small rubber shavings probably not a lot...I just reinstalled the transom assembly and lowered my motor back on the mounts after having it suspended on 4x4s braced across the boat. I keep revisiting every aspect of the repair in my mind worrying if I got everything right...think I should have been more worried about the polyester resin fiberglass patch in the gimbal housing before installing it cuz the hole in the gimbal is the reason I had to crack in there anyways guess we will just have to see how long she floats. Thanks again