Hot water under captians chair.

[555nova]

I am Jason and my wife and I just bought our first boat, an 03 air Nautique 216 LE.

We had the boat on the river the other night and I started noticing hot water puddleing up at my feet. I'm thinking it has to be from the heater, so I took apart the kick panel and the block off plate in the bow to check the hoses going to the heat exchanger. Everything looked fine lunder there. It looks like the water is coming from about 6" in front of the seat mount and not from under the dash area.

Any thoughts on this would be very appreciated, thanks again Jason.

[themaestro]

I had the same problem. Leak in the heater core. I bypassed the heater altogether, problem solved. Don't need heat in San Diego

[555nova]

What did you do to block off the heater?

[swc5150]

Disconnect the heater hoses from the motor. (If it's a factory install, and depending on the year, your hoses are likely red) Quick and easy, but you'll need to buy two plugs for the holes (any auto parts store will have them).

[555nova]

Thanks I just went out to work on the boat and a thunder storm had to roll in. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get a chance to look.

[johnboyy7]

one thing i did was i cut my hoses to the heater and installed metal water hose connections. i put the male and female ends so that i could bypass the heater but in winter i could easily reconnect. works good. i hope this will prolong the life of my heater core.

btw. if you want to replace your heater core, there are several threads about which car it came out of. meaning you can pay 20 for one from autozone (i did) and make a couple of very minor modifications or pay 150ish for a new one.

[themaestro]

I posted about this a few weeks back. This is what I did:

"Temporarily, you can get a double-hose barb connector and connect the 2 hoses going in and out of the heater core. Be sure to hose clamp them. This way you can continue to use your boat until you get a replacement heater (if you decide to even replace it). It's a good idea to keep one of these double hose barbs on the boat in case this happens again."

[555nova]

I removed the heater hose from the water pump and intake manifold and replaced the barbed fittings with brass plugs, taking the boat out tonight after work so hopefully the problem is fixed. Thanks again Jason

[ClemsonDave]

I usually cut both hoses and install brass garden hose quick disconnects. Install each in opposite direction so when your not using the heater, you can connect the hoses coming from block together. It also is a great way to blow the water out of the heater core for winterization.