Riviera bilge question

[hcarmich]

Hi Km

I am having water problems too, but in my case I don't know where the water is going. Fill tanks, run pump - builds pressure. Pump shuts off. 5 minutes later - looses pressure, comes on etc. All taps closed no leaking water at taps. No shower on swim platform. No additional water in any of the three bilge areas. No water at pump or visible lines in aft cabin.

Long shot question, if there is a split in the heat ex-changer inside the hot water tank - could water escapting through the exhaust?

Are there any outlets below the water line where water can escape?

I have had two knowledgeable people to the boat and they cannot figure out where the water is going....

No loss of water if pump not turned on.

Please help!

[km1125]

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Long shot question, if there is a split in the heat ex-changer inside the hot water tank - could water escapting through the exhaust?

Yes, it certainly can leak out that way. That also means that cooling water can enter your potable water at the hot water tank whenever the potable lines aren't pressurized and the engines are running.

It's pretty easy to disconnect those water-heater-exhanger cooling lines from the engine and do a simple pressure test, or just leave them open and see if any potable water starts running out of them. You can just put a loop on a different hose and connect the two engine barbs so you can still use the boat (sans engine-water-heating-feature)

[hcarmich]

Hi again. Thank you for this. If I do not loop on a different hose and connect the two engine barbs immediately can I still use the boat? If so, what should I do to ensure no damage/issues?

Thank you again!

[km1125]

You can disconnect the hoses from the engine and either remove the hose barbs and just put plugs in there, or you can take a short length of hose and connect the two barbs together. Then you can use the engine as long as you want with either method. If you have twin engines, that's the way the other engine is configured anyways.

If you think you'll be connecting up the water heater again then I'd leave the hose barbs in place. If you don't think you'll ever hook it back up just put the plugs in. You can always put the hose barbs back in later if you end up needing/wanting the water heater hooked back into the system.

[bud37]

There is one other way, pretty much the same......disconnect the engine hoses at the heater itself and join them together with the right size coupling for the hoses......then you can watch the heater for leaks easily....then if all is well you can reconnect to the heater if desired......6 of this 1/2 dozen of that...

[SunsetSteve]

I do not know if there is a relationship between the electric hot water tank and the engine cooling system. Is there?
Why is there no way to discover anything at all about the plumbing system on these boats?

[bud37]

Only if the hot water tank is connected to one of the engines.........just a small heat exchanger in the water tank...the hot water from the engine as it is running warms the fresh water in the tank and you have hot water as you are going along and when get to your destination with out having the power on.

It was an option so not all boats were fitted with it, and if I remember right , way back when, Crusader may have ( sometimes ) had a different value thermostat in the engine that fed the water tank heat exchanger.....foggy at best.....

A lot of the discovery of any of the systems in older boats kinda relies on the owner going about with a bright light and opening all the hatches etc to see what is what. The reason being is that over the years all sorts of things get altered and up graded by owners and mechanics alike, so there really is not much consistency.

[km1125]

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.... It was an option so not all boats were fitted with it, and if I remember right , way back when, Crusader may have ( sometimes ) had a different value thermostat in the engine that fed the water tank heat exchanger.....foggy at best..... ...

The raw water cooled engines used 143F thermostats. This actually resulted in hotter water in the water heater than when you were heating the heater with electricity, as that was somewhere around 120-130F.

Not sure on the closed cooling systems, especially operated in fresh water. They would normally want 160F thermostats in those engines for best performance but that would result in REALLY hot water in the water heater, so maybe in THOSE cases they'd recommend going back to the 143F ones.

[tomschauer]

If your engines are fresh water cooled, I really doubt the problem is in the water heater exchanger. If it was, you would be over pressurizing your engine cooling system and leaking out of the overflow container.
Did you check to see if water is leaking out of your dockside water connector? The check valve is only good for a few years, less if not properly winterized.
If it fails, water will drip or spray out of the connector.

[hcarmich]

Hi everyone.

If we take the engine lines off of the heat exchanger connection on the hot water tank and form a loop, don't we also need to cap off the holes on the hot water tank to avoid water loss? We want to isolate the heat exchanger and see if the hot water heater works once we put water in the tanks. Not the best situation, but at least we will have hot water with shore or generator power. Please let me know what you think. thanks