Welcome to the site..  Great site and you can get some great info when you are looking for it.  As for Big River, really nice place and even better river.  Wife and I cruised up there with the kids last weekend from Lost Lake.  Nice boat ride.  See ya on the water sometime and around the site.

Alright, so I think I found the problem.  I took apart the t-fitting that connects the headers to the engine and there was so much junk in there it wasn't funny! 
So I cleaned it out and put everything back together and it all appears to be working fine.  Going out to Lost Lake next week and will test it out for good then.  Thanks for everyone's help!

Cool, nothing like a Power Ball to take care of some bluing.  So I checked the plugs and they appear to be fine, like grey in color with minimum amount of oil on it.  More on #1 than the others but not enough to be concerned about yet. 
I also pulled the valve cover off just to look at everything on the topside of the head and it looks good up there.  Next I am going to pull apart the entire cooling system for headers on that side and hopefully there will be something there..... That way I don't have to keep hunting! 
Thanks for all the advice and I will let you know.  And yes..... Site addiction!

water lines blocked on those cylinders? I've blocked one side before....watch the weep holes

Okay, so what do you mean by "weep holes".  I pulled the water line off of the bottom of the header on #1 cylinder and the water line was clear from what I could see.  Is there something else I should be looking at on the bottom of the headers?

Yeah, the wind thing is an issue if it kicks up enough.  That canyon that the lake is in acts like a funnel and the wind can get screaming through there.  It was a little windy on the Tuesday that I went out but I figured being out on the water is enough to forget about the wind. 

So I took the boat out last weekend to the river, and it did great!  Until the last day that is....  Ran the boat like crazy on Saturday with no problems, boat ran cool (120'F) and didn't have any problems. 
Sunday though, boat still ran cool as it did on Saturday but when I pulled it out of the water, I noticed that the #1 and #3 header tubes up to the collector had turned blueish.   Now I know that this is a result from getting hot but what are some of the possible causes that could cause it just to happen on those 2 cylinders?  All of the other cylinder tubes are fine, and are still chrome so that's don't get hot.   
I dont have the boat with me right now so I can't sit there and mess with stuff to try and figure out the cause so I figured I would get some ideas so I have somehere to start. 

Well I put everything together last week and tested it out this Monday.  Everything worked great and it's amazing how good the steering works without a ton of washers in the back of it.
thanks for everyones help!

I have found that the less you think about it, the less you worry about it.  I just go and then deal with the money part of it later.   Like it was said earlier, you are going to boat anyways so you may as well be at the river!

   Thanks!  I am off to Eddie Marine to get a new seal.

Alright, so I went and got the swivel kit for my pump and I still have to run washers to hook everything up.  It solved my alignment problem a little, still rubs the side of the shaft on the tube but not as bad.   
The thing is, when I go to hook up my swivel kit to my steering arm, the arm and tube are so rigid that I have to run washers under the swivel to bring it up and meet it with the steering arm.
So it brings it to my next question......  Is my steering tube supposed to be so tight that it causes the tube to be rigid or will the black bushing that comes with the kit, provide a water tight seal with the nuts being loose enough to allow the tube to move?   

Alright, I see kinda what you are saying about the nylon and everything else.  The guy I bought my boat from did the 10,000 washer idea and to top it off, he didn't use stainless so it was a big rusted bolt back there.  Anyways, this is where my problem comes in and I am curious to see if it's a common thing.
I just purchased a new steering cable for my jet.  when I put the new cable in I noticed that the shaft of the steering cable doesn't line up with the bolt hole on the jet pump assembly.   It isn't off by very much but it is off enough to where, when I bolt it up it pulls the steering rod to one side causing it to rub and restrict it's movement a little. 
So is this a common thing, or is my boat just a little messed up?

we do just fine out there, 19'. It does get rough w/ wind. EXCELENT day today

Cool, thanks!  And yeah, the wind sucks anywhere you go so there is no get away from that.