While out sailing the other weekend, I noticed a new rattle in the engine. Took the step off of the top of the engine, and it looked like the bronze pipe that hooks in to the exhaust of the engine was bouncing up and down.
I didn’t know at the time that this pipe is threaded all the way past the nut. I do now! I showed a slow-motion video of the issue to someone at the club who works on engines and mechanical things for a living, and he knew what the problem was immediately,
Five minutes with a big plumber’s wrench and a lump hammer, and the pipe was screwed back in to the threads in the engine. As one of the other guys put it to me – things that are attached to the engine shouldn’t rattle; that’s why there’s hoses and engine mounts to ensure the engine vibration stays in the engine.