i removed by basset short ot header to repair a crack in one of the tubes. i noticed that the exhaust port cylinder 2 was light in color, like rust color look orange brown. cylinder 4 being a little darker in color, cylinder 6 black, and cylinder 8 super black. also on by header one of the tubes that goes to cylinder 2 is deformed, a little dented and twisted. so im assuming this cylinder gets hot! is this signs of that cylinder running lean? im not sure how the stock intakes feeds the cylinders, maybe cylinders towards front starving for fuel? the plug is from cylinder 2 and shows orange and starting to show specs of blistering. all other plugs on the bank are white and perfect. all plugs have oil on the threads.  other bank i did not look at the ports color because im not removing the exhaust. what do you guys think? am i triping agian 

geeeeez i cannot function right now .... sorry for the bad grammar and also these plugs are new and have about an hour and a half of run time on the water

Thanks for the response.. im leaning towards fuel delivery problems too. I have a rochester on this stock 454 which is a problem already....  reason why; its 17 years old and it leaks fuel internally when its off. Instead of rebuilding i rather by a new carb.  I wonder if im getting enough fuel pressure...  i might have enough where the boat runs bitchin but border line starving those harder to feed cylinders . But that cylinder has to be leaner than all the other ones so Time to throw darts i guess to fix it.

i have an electric fuel pump, 1994 marine power mark v 454  with stock intake and rochester quadrajet carb. basset short headers. my right fuel tank is dirty and the filter is clogged, engine wont run on that tank. i run the boat using by good tank which is clean, but the fuel filter for that may be clogged so maybe im losing pressure. the boat runs damn good. im goin to replace the lines and filters to pump first. when i first bought the boat i notice that exhaust tube got hot and deformed so the problem has been there for awhile.