boat leak is out of control

aright guys i have already posted on this but its out of control now, i dont know whats going on but somehow water is comming out of my heater vents when i go around turns?

Your heater core is shot for sure. Find your heater and the in/out hoses. Clamp off those hoses pronto.

The heater is probably under your dash some place. You will see the hoses. You can also cap them off at the engine. Do it fast before you sink!!

You most likely have a cracked heater core. It will get worse. Better get on that.....

DAMMIT FLUX.... I don't know ANYTHING about this stuff and have to pay someone to do EVERYTHING. I finally know something significant and you beat me to it!!!!!!!

Put AA batteries in the end of the hoses and put a hose clamp around the hose. Ghetto, but it works good until you get a new heater core.

I guess I have been messing with my boat too much and reading posts on every problem under the sun that has to do with wakeboard boats and trailers.

I will slow down, sorry EJ. One cool thing to do is go sit in your boat and look at EVERYTHING. Look at a hose and ask yourself "what the hell is this"?? Then find out. Most people could save themselves thousands of dollars over the lifetime of their boat and trailer if they tried to do stuff themselves. For less than 200 bucks you could have every tool you need to maintain and fix most things on your boat.

I happened to be under the dash of my boat last night looking over a wiring nightmare, and my heater was sitting there, so I checked the hoses.

Chances are Justin forgot to blow out the heater hoses and the core over the winter, so the core cracked and now he has pressurized hot water pouring out of his heater vents.

(Message edited by Flux on June 22, 2006)

Awesome fix Bocephus!!! I was gonna suggest a stick or some duct tape contraption.

yeh the water is hot comming out of the vents, but how does water get into a heating duct, it blows hot air out not water i thought?

the heating pump is boarded up under the passenger seat so this could explain why the left side of the gunwale fills up with water but not the right.

so what do i need to do to get to the ends of these house that are leaking?

hey flux, where do i find the houses that i can clamp off at the engine?

Justin:

It probably isn't the hoses that are leaking, it is the heat exchanger ("core") in the heater unit.

The heater unit will be a metal/plastic box that is about 12 square and perhaps 18 inches long. It will have large air duct hoses coming out it, a couple of electric wires (for the blower) and two rubber hoses that bring hot water from the engine. Follow the ducts back, it won't be hard to find.

It is common for the heater cores to spring leaks. If you had a closed cooling system so that the same water was being circulated over and over the amount of corrosion that takes place is very limited. But when you pump an unlimited amount of water throught the system you end up with an unlimited amount of corrosion and the heater cores are the weakest link.

On my boat the heater box was buried pretty deep under the dash, it was a bitch to get at. The rubber hoses attach with hose clamps so they are fairly easy to remove if you can get to them. You need to disconnect both hoses and either cap them off or connect them together.

I paid around $100 for the replacement core, but there have been threads on this forum that claim there is a standard automotive heater core that fits.

aright ill go take a look at it



will it still leak water even if the heater is not turned on beacause its leakeing without the heater running?

Yes....as long as the boat is running, you are pushing hot water through the heater.

You guys are killing me with the redneck battery fix. I guess it'd work, but you may end up rupturing a battery and burning your carpet up with the battery acid.

Do your self a favor and disconnect the hoses at the heater core, measure the core inlet pipes and go to the hardware store (Orchard's has everything you'd need) and pick up a fitting to bypass the core. Preferably use metal as it'll get pretty hot. You could even use pipe cut to length if you can't find anything else.

Then remove your heater core, take it to a radiator shop and get it repaired.

Good advice Evan, this is often done with older cars that are in decent running shape but are not worth spending 800 bucks getting the heater core out from behind the engine and between the dash. The "bypass hose fix" is very common and is probably the safest measure in this case as well.

could that one problem right here fill my boat up 8 inches in the bilge in about 3 minutes or do i have other leaks somewhere

Yes.... Surprising how much water is shooting through those hoses.

Evan, that is what we did in Powell. Lucky I had some guys in the boat that were handy. I was worried about their "plan" but it worked fine and we had the boat for the rest of the trip, which was the most important thing.

I cannot remember what they used between the hoses, but amazing what you can find on a houseboat in a pinch.

I have used a deep socket of the right diameter between the two hoses.Of course you need to carry a tool box to pull that one off.

Lets say you take the hose off your motor after the raw water impellar and put it in a 5 gallon bucket. Next run your motor. You should fill that bucket in about 10 seconds or less. Now, multiply that volume by three minutes!

What you don't seem to get (I suppose from reading your response) is that the heater core is inline in the water circulation for your motor. Water is pumped through the motor, where it warms, then it passes into the heater core, where the blowers pass air over the coils inside which are now warm because of the water and then the toasty air comes out of the vents. Meanwhile that water passes out of the coil and into the exhaust where it finally exits the boat.

What is happening is the coil is leaking, which dumps hot water into the vents which is pouring out into your boat at a rapid rate. Evans advice is best, to join the hoses on either end, if you are going to continue using the boat. You could put a bolt in either hose and clamp it down, but that's ghetto!

Fox

As I recall when I had this problem, I found that a garden hose splice kit could join together the two hoses to the heater with no leaks so you can keep using the boat while you have the core out and getting another one. I can't remember which size hose kit 1/2 inch or 5/8s. I went to a Kragen with the old core in the middle of the morning when they weren't doing much and they leafed through the catalog pictures until we found one that matched up. For my core it was something crazy like a 1974 Lincoln - I'm sure I'm not remembering exactly but it was a little surprising.

http://www.skidim.com/products.asp?dept=1020

Justin,

Check out that link. They have replacement HeaterCraft heater cores. $83 for the 2 port and $103 for the 3 port.

I have '67 Ford F100 with AA batteries in the hoses for over 6 years. It still runs and no leaks...LOL!