Mine is a 2006 sundancer 24, bravo...

[drd]

Mine is a 2006 sundancer 24, bravo III, 5.0 engine.  Hot water heater has a major leak but can't be repaired till hauling out this fall.  PROBLEM NOW is that water from engine flowing through exchange hose into  water heater also leaks into the bilge . . . And thus limits the cooling impact for the engine. Am thinking that for now I might be able to remove the intake and recieving ends of hoses attached to water heater and couple them together with fittings and clamps to close that system.  ANY BETTER IDEAS WOULD BE VERY APPRECIATED!  Doug, at WINDLESS.

[wingless]

Yes, either connect the antifreeze hoses together at water heater, bypassing the water heater, or remove them / plug them at the engine, or connect them together at the engine.

How is water heater antifreeze getting into the bilge? It sounds like a defective hose that could be swapped to fix the problem.

[drd]

Its a sea water cooling system, no antifreeze is leaking. Hot water heater was leaking water from its base, tank must have cracked over the winter.. Thanks for your advise, will try coupling the two exchange hoses outside the water heater and not use the heater at all for remainder of season. Dr d

[wingless]

Leaking raw water only, not fresh water?

The water heater doesn't have an electric heating element that works on shore power or generator power?

Doesn't the winterization run fluid through the raw water circuit and also through the fresh water circuit?

When I was doing that to my boat the water heater was a butt pain because the fittings were on the side of the tank bottle, so it held about a gallon when all taps were open to drain. That gallon diluted the fluid more than I wanted.

One year I yanked the tank to rotate the taps to the bottom. That was a butt pain.

Other years I rigged a water heater bypass so undiluted fluid ran through the hot plumbing for best freeze protection.

Now the boat is in the tropics, so my biggest worry is bottom growth.

[drd]

My goal is not to get the hot water heater working at this time, its fundamentally cracked and out of service, leaks. Current goal is to stop the associated leakage within that heater coming from exvhange hoses from engine.. Drd

[Capt_Dave]

This is very easy to by pass till winter or forever as I did. Your coupling idea will work and you will just need a piece of barb or a short pipe the same size as inside of hose and 2 hose clamps. Or a new length of same size hose about 10 inches long to attach where the two hoses are currently attached at the engine. Third option if you don't want to buy more hose right now. Just leave the top hose attached to engine, go out about 10 to 12 inches and cut it. Then disconnect the bottom hose from engine to water heater completely and put the other end of top hose where it was attached. Your water heater will still work on shore power or gen. And you heater hoses won't be connected to water heater anymore so everything will be leak free and still working. It just won't heat water while running anymore. Problem solved for $0 and a 5min fix.

[sandydlc]

I had this issue on our old boat. I purchased a brass coupler and attached the intake hose from the heater to one side of the coupler and the output hose to the other side of the coupler, added two hose clamps on each side of the coupler for good measure and was able to bypass the heater altogether. I also had the parts to bypass the heater at any time without affecting the raw water cooling for the engine. In the case of our previous boat (a 2001 30' Chaparral), the heater was located above the aft cabin and not in the engine room. Good luck.

[drd]

Sandydlc, thanks very much. I figured out that same configuration and the engine now runs cooler without the raw water leaking out through the cracked water heater. Thanks for your support, drd.

[sandydlc]

Glad you got it worked out! Once you can remove and inspect your heater, you may find that you only need to replace the heater core and not the entire heater unit.