Water heater removal

[Tazz9281]

I have a 1996 250 sundancer with a bad hot water heater . The previous owner had a mechanic look at it and was told that the heater cannot be removed with the motor in . Is this indeed true or just a lot of work to do it ? Any ideas ?

 

[mwph]

First off - Welcome to CSR!
This site is full of good, solid information & people that are willing to help.

As for your heater - I have a very similar boat & I'll guarantee you I can get the heater out without taking the engine out. Maybe an exhaust tube, manifold & riser. But not the entire engine. I'll look at it this weekend, but I think he is wrong. Is your heater on the port side?

Again - Welcome to CSR!

 

[Mike Blake]

Welcome to CSR!!!

 

[JimG]

Good answer from mwph...

But then I notice a 454 in a 250DA :wow: (maybe that's why his engine has to come out :huh: ) I hope you have a Bravo drive.

Welcome to CSR!

 

[hobbs]

I have the same boat, but one year older. My mechanic removed my heater and the motor was not pulled. My heater was located on the port side. If you have the water tank in front of the engine, this tank will most likely need to be temporarily removed.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Shimmy, shimmy, shake, shake. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. Twist and shout.

 

[Tazz9281]

Thank you for the warm welcomes.The heater is on the port side and i do have a Bravo 3 outdrive . The boat was repowered in 2005 with a 454 because the PO thought it was under powered . Removing an exhaust tube, manifold and riser doesn't sound too bad. I have only owned the boat for a month and would like everything to work properly

 

[stwischu]

I have similar situation. Just bought a 98 250DA. Water heater is completely missing. There is a footprint on the port side between the batteries and the water pump which is where I believe the heater would go. There is also a loose AC power cable in that location. The red and blue water lines have been looped and T'eed to each other so cold water runs from the pump through both lines. I have the 5.0 MPI engine which was a replacement from the original. So how hard to put IN a water heater? Any particular model to recommend? I assume there is some type of heat exchanger which gets heat from the engine under power, otherwise electric heat on dock power? That sounds like a major install.

 

[mwph]

I don't have the brand name to recommend, but installing one should not be too tough either. Especially with the 5.0 engine. Of course you'll want to find the right one to go in there. Probably 6 gallon. Don't try to put an oversized one in there. Fit is important and a larger one probably isn't needed anyhow. You are correct, water from a running engine will circulate through the heater, warming your fresh water as it passes through. Otherwise dock power will heat the element.

 

[Lazy Daze]

That sounds like a major install.

Nah, pretty straight forward. Maybe 2 hours. I used an Atwood (which was also OEM) 11 gallon when I replaced my original 6 gallon. Size is actually not that much different. There's other brands, though.

For the engine side of the heating coil, look at the engine for black rubber heater hoses looped back on each other - from the top of the engine to the circ pump. Those are the two you'll use. If no hoses are there, look for plugs - same size as a garboard drain plug. Replace with pipe-to-barb fittings and add hose.

 

[Bucit]

I have twins in a 280 and the water heater is located aft port side. I replaced mine when I did the manifolds. So, manifolds/risers off, batteries moved and the trip pump needed to be moved as well. My FW pump was sitting on top of the water heater and needed to be emoved as well. Then like Dennis said, shake, shake and a couple of wiggles and you're home free.

The toughest thing to getting it out was the 2 screws that were on the back of the water heater. Couldn't se or get to them. I think I used a 2' screw driver and liad on top of the engine and got them out blind. I made 2 'L' brackets and secured them to the side of the water heater so I didn't have to contend with installing those back 2 again.