Not Mechanically inclined

The further I tear into this heap of iron called an Atomic 4 engine the more I realize just how mechanically UN-inclined the previous owner(s) of the boat are. There are so many problems that have been obviously wrong to me for years. Good examples are the lazzarettes which someone carefully reconstructed, however they didn't think about grain direction and the hatches broke in a few years. The rats nest that was the wiring and the fact that nothing electrical worked on the boat including the bilge pump which is why a second pump for bailing in an emergency was onboard.

The most recent offences are all in the motor and seem to be related to a single poor bit of back-yard engineering and even worse judgement. These motors use lake water to cool the cylinders in much the same way your car uses antifreeze and a radiator by circulating fluid around the engine to keep things under control. Once the water on an Atomic 4 makes it's way around the engine it is discharged into the exhaust line to be pushed by the exhaust gasses out of the engine. This is a somewhat ingeneous design as it cools the exhaust gas as well. The fatal flaw is that if for any reason the water does not flow out the end of the boat it can back up into the exhaust manifold and flood the cylinders. Anyone putting together the pieces why I had water in my oil? To make matters worse at some point a previous owner was having a hard time with the exhaust system and decided to cut part of the exhaust pipe off with a hacksaw and repair it with a flexible gromet... that didn't seal well enough to help the exhaust  gas push water out of the muffler causing a backup.

I tried to remove the cutoff section of pipe with a wrench but it had overheated gasses running through it for so long that it is fused. Even with a three foot lever arm I was unable to turn the pipes loose. To make it worse, the threads are upside down so I can't even hit the thing in penetrating oil to loosen it up. I'm thinking I'll try and install a flexible coupling like the previous owner but just make damn sure the thing is sealed this time. 

The good news is I am in the process of setting up a kickstarter account to help crowd source funding for my electric drive idea. I have most of the details worked out other than the type of batteries to use (this will depend on funding available.)