I just joined and am glad to have found this forum. I bought a Davette SS several weeks back and Dana was a great person to work with! The boat is phenomenal, I am still impressed by the finish on the boat. At any rate, I am in the process of finishing it off and am new to gas boating (I have always had nitro boats/cars/trucks and am tired of the hassle). I would like to know what the difference is between a wet pipe v. dry pipe and what are the advantages to either one? Thanks for the assistance and I look forward to spending more time learning on this site!

Craig

The "wet pipe" has water injected into it, usually at the header. This keeps exhaust gases cooler and tricks the pipe into thinking it is longer. Advantages: cooler running, normally less noisy and overall shorter length so in many cases the entire pipe can fit inside the hull. The pipe itself stays "cooler" to the touch. Disadvantages: typically makes less power than a dry pipe in part because of cooler exhaust gases.
The Wet Pipe is more of a sport boat pipe.

The "Dry pipe" does NOT have water injected INTO it...it may or may not have water cooled flanges, but this water is not intended to go inside the pipe itself: Advantages: typically much better performance than the wet pipe. Disadvantages: typically longer than the wet pipe, if both pipe are identical, the dry pipe will be louder. The pipe gets VERY hot...additional clearance and ventilation in the hull is required.
The Dry pipe is the pipe of choice for racers and for all out performance.

If your building a play boat IMO a Wet pipe is best. If you want to race the boat a dry aluminum or steel pipe is best and will provide the best performance. I really like the sound and cool operation of the wet pipes.

Injecting water into the header cools the exhaust gas and makes the pipe "longer", giving more low end power for launching or acceleration. We use this on many of our straight line record boats. Injecting water into the stinger quiets the exhaust. Using this with a stinger muffler makes it easy to meet the lowest noise limits.

Lohring Miller

Thanks for the answers everyone!