Help! My Cockpit Is Flooding

[markcr]

I just hooked a fake-a-lake to my (new to me) 05 outback and was running the engine. After a while, water started coming into the cockpit from underneath the forward driver area. It's coming in really bad and lots of it. It has a heater option and my suspicion is that it wasn't winterized correctly by the previous owner and the heater core is cracked. Anyone else see something like this on their boat? If it is the heater, any advice would be appreciated on how to fix or remove it. Also, can I bypass the heater temporarily by routing the outlet hose directly back into the inlet hose?

As always, thanks.

As a side note, I drove all the way to Oregon to buy this boat last weekend. The guy I bought it from seems like a real honest guy so I don't think there is any malice involved. However, I'm kicking myself for not doing a more thorough pre-flight before buying it.

[Razzman]

You can pull the hoses and bypass, it won't hurt anything. The heater should be under and behind the starboard bow seat in front of the drivers hump, pull it and have a radiator shop check the core.

[zegm]

pull it and have a radiator shop check the core.

Hey just a quick question here, are there any more radiator shops left in the world with the new plastic aluminum radiators? I haven't seen one in 10 years.

[zabooda]

Heater core. Happened to me. I called Heatercraft and I replaced it with no problems. Mine corroded out mid-summer.

[Jon]

Yep, heater core is probably busted. Until you get it fixed just remove the hoses from the core and connect the two so the water will loop back to the engine.

[markcr]

Ok, thanks gang. I'll pull it and see about a replacement or getting it fixed.

[zabooda]

You can replace just the core but if is like mine you'll have some rivits to drill out. I found they weren't cheap but they were priced the same as automobile heater cores.

[kaneboats]

Heater? I was putting some AC on my boat before I got interrupted. When was that? Around April 1?

[Razzman]

Hey just a quick question here, are there any more radiator shops left in the world with the new plastic aluminum radiators? I haven't seen one in 10 years.

I have three within two miles of my house!

[zegm]

I have three within two miles of my house!

Wow, are they now rebuilding the new style radiators? When these "new designed" radiator have gone bad on me I just order a new one. I have spent between 175 to 300 dollars for a new plastic and aluminum radiator. When the auto manufacturers were using copper I never bought one, just took it to the radiator shop. Copper actually cools at almost twice the rate of aluminum but the cost and weight is driving the change, so now you have to allow for a radiator that is almost twice as large.
I have also never bought a starter or alternator, just took them to the shop and usually got out of there paying between 30 to 50 bucks. Last time I went it cost me 100 dollars!

[markcr]

I removed my heater and heater core. I think the picture speaks for itself...

5046

[markcr]

For some reason, my pic doesn't show up - AND my heater core has a huge hole in it. :mrgreen:

[viking]

I removed my heater and heater core. I think the picture speaks for itself...

5046

Holy cow - what would cause that? Did it freeze?

[markcr]

I don't know what caused it for sure. I just bought the boat and was test running it in my driveway with a fake-a-lake and my whole boat started filling up with water. I bought the boat up in Oregon. I suspect it wasn't correctly winterized by the previous owner and the heater core ruptured during the winter. The holes protrude outward so the damage came from inside out. Freezing is the only thing I can come up with that would cause holes that large.

[DOCDRS]

thanks for the update, cause and fix for your prob
how long did it take to remove the core?

[zegm]

I don't know what caused it for sure. I just bought the boat and was test running it in my driveway with a fake-a-lake and my whole boat started filling up with water. I bought the boat up in Oregon. I suspect it wasn't correctly winterized by the previous owner and the heater core ruptured during the winter. The holes protrude outward so the damage came from inside out. Freezing is the only thing I can come up with that would cause holes that large.

I would lay a couple of bucks that for sure freezing caused that! You can tell the channels are swollen too!

[markcr]

It was surprisingly easy to remove the heater. I came home from work on my lunch break and had it completely out within an hour. First, contort your body up under the dash and following the heater wire harness, clip away the zip ties and disconnect the wiring from the control switch. Next, open up the engine cover and remove the hose clamps from the intake and outlet water hoses then pull the hoses free from their respective engine fittings (Only disconnect from the engine if you need some extra wiggle room to pull the heater unit out enough to remove the other end of the hoses). Go up to the open bow and pull the starboard seat cushion. Look up underneath toward the driver's compartment and you'll see the heater there mounted to the driver's kick board. Use a long #2 Philips screwdriver to remove the 4 mounting screws. This step takes some patients but they come out in time. Now you can move the heater unit around until you can loosen the two hose clamps on the intake and outlet hoses connected to the heater. Disconnect these two hoses. Oh, yeah. Cut the zip ties that hold the 3 large heater output vent hoses and remove those too. Gently pull the whole heater assembly out where you can work on it. I had read that you needed to remove the rivets to get to the heater core. THIS IS NOT TRUE!!! I removed the rivets only to find that I just needed to remove a few screws at the intake/outlet side of the heat exchanger box and the whole core slides right out. Silly me. I'll have to re-rivet mine back together. Doh! If you go to Heater Craft's website, they sell a replacement core for $113.00. I believe the model I have is the 300 series. Hope this helps.

-Mark

[Razzman]

Glad to hear it somewhat painless to remove. And i'll just add that $113 is cheap to what it could have been!

[zabooda]

Sorry Mark I was the one who told you to drill out rivits but it was a different heater as I can see from the picture. As a consolation, you may be able to remove the kick board with four screws and install it a little easier since the tubes can be a pain to tie wrap down. Freezing is the probable culprit as mine was from corrosion and was a very small leak that you couldn't even see the hole. I can see why you had a gusher going. I had a small leak that started burning my toes in 100 degree weather. I was on a week long trip so we had to live with it for four days and another reason to install a shutoff valve at the engine which I didn't do.

[markcr]

Hey, no worries, zabooda. It wasn't a big deal to drill out those rivets. They're just 5/32 aluminum pop rivets. I picked some up from Home Depot and the heater will go back together easily. A valve at the engine is a great idea. I tested the hot water shower option that the boat has and sure enough, it leaks too. I'm finding that although these bells and whistles are cool, they each provide a point of failure that the boat owner needs to consider - especially if it involves any water routed from the engine.

[zabooda]

It took me a half hour to figure out my heater had only pop rivits. I thought they would have had a way to get the box apart but every side had them. Heatercraft on-line out of Idaho had the best price for a core. I use my heater a lot but I never use my shower but I still have to winterize it each year. When mine fails, I will be taking it out just as you were saying about another failure point.

[superfet]

My heater didn´t make the winter either, it came lots of water from the heater core when i started the engine today. I opened it up and saw a big hole in one of the pipes:( I ordered a new one from skidim.com . I will pay extra attention to the heater next time i winterise my boat....