Hi Folks....
I have a 1998 3 liter Merc and have a brass drain plug stuck in the manifold. The engine block drains out of the blue plug just fine.
There is a flat plate on the front of the manifold with 4 bolts holding it on.Has anyone removed this plate to drain their manifold?

Thanks in advance !

I pulled the end caps off the risers on our Sun Runner, and found lots of sand! But it WAS access to the riser's water jacket, so just as a guess, it'll probably work with the 3.0... and even if it doesn't it'll only cost you a gasket.

Heck I was thinking 4200 to put it back on.
The riser(singluar) stays cool enough to hold on to when running.
Would be nice to see what shape the 10 year old riser is in from the inside since it looks new from the outside.

I have 20 year old risers on my 2.5's, and the drain plug threads on the starboard riser just disintegrated the first time I pulled the plug. I ran a next size larger tap into it and there still wasn't enough clean cast iron to take a good thread. I was able to get a valve fitting to not leak with a lot of teflon tape...yeah, I'll be changing risers soon...

And they look new on the outside too!

That is why I am thinking about just pulling the sheet metal square plate on the end of the riser .
4 bolts and off she will come.
I cannot for the life of me get the brass drain plug out.
I am not going to start beating on a 10 year old cast exhaust riser.