Jump to content

Welcome to TheMalibuCrew!

As a guest, you are welcome to poke around and view the majority of the content that we have to offer, but in order to post, search, contact members, and get full use out of the website you will need to Register for an Account. It's free and it's easy, so don't hesitate to join the TheMalibuCrew Family today!

Heater install for Monsoon 340 with salt water package


Macutak

Recommended Posts

I have an 06 vlx and it has what I have heard called a closed cooling system. But I think it is really just a heat exchanger that cools the water by running it through a heat exchanger full of antifreeze. So the question is where do I splice in for my HeaterCraft 3 vent heater? Bakes Online said it runs off the coolant just fine, but I think he is thinking of a completely closed system that only takes in coolant. My boat still pulls fresh water through the engine and then just puts it thought the heat exchanger before dumping it out the exhaust. So my take is that I still hook into the engine plug at the top of the engine just under the coolant tank. That is going to be hard to get to with the heat exchanger built on top and not much room. Any ideas or photos of this install would be very appreciated. However, I am guessing there are not many with this configuration with heaters installed out there since many haven opined that it cannot be done. I am not sure everyone is using the same lingo with the words "closed system" , "Half closed system" or "salt water package". What is my system really called? And how do I install this heater so I can use it now? I stared at it all for over an hour and the answer was not coming to me.

Link to comment

I have an 07 VLX with half loop cooling system and have a heater. No idea how the heater is hooked up because it came that way from the factory.

I could be wrong...although I am pretty sure I am right that if you have the SS package you do not have water running through your engine. You have antifreeze running through your engine. The heat exchanger is like a radiator on a car except instead of using air to cool the antifreeze it uses the cold water from the lake or ocean to cool the antifreeze which is running through your engine.

For instance on my boat with a half loop system there is no water in the engine just antifreeze but the water does exit out the exhaust manifolds. With a full loop system, which I believe is what the salt water package is, water not only does not enter the engine, it does not enter the exhaust manifolds. Everything is cooled with antifreeze.

Again, I could be wrong...I am sure someone with more knowledge than me will chime in.

Link to comment

If you have a closed cooling system (half or full) you pull your heater hoses off the same point.

Supply - 5/8 fitting (you remove a plug and install a male adapter) on the side of your main water pump

Return - 5/8 fitting (you remove a plug and install a male adapter) on the top of your intake manifold next your thermostat housing.

The heater will be circulating coolant in a closed loop to the engine, just like your car/truck does.

I attached a photo that will point you in the general location. Hope this helps

post-4023-128552510397_thumb.jpg

-Paul

Link to comment

Well then, I do not have the salt water package then, because I run it in my driveway with the hose connected to the flush kit and I get water out the exhaust. The photo helps a lot. Thanks. Of course I have the heat exchanger on top where I am supposed to fit the adapter and the hose. It will be a tight fit. I understand everyone suggests running the hoses up the Starboard side. Which direction do I take these hoses to get there. Supply line runs under the engine and the return runs??? Thanks for the help. I saw several posts that said that you cannot run a heater with this closed system so I hope this clears that up. I will post again after it is installed.

Link to comment

Well then, I do not have the salt water package then, because I run it in my driveway with the hose connected to the flush kit and I get water out the exhaust. The photo helps a lot. Thanks. Of course I have the heat exchanger on top where I am supposed to fit the adapter and the hose. It will be a tight fit. I understand everyone suggests running the hoses up the Starboard side. Which direction do I take these hoses to get there. Supply line runs under the engine and the return runs??? Thanks for the help. I saw several posts that said that you cannot run a heater with this closed system so I hope this clears that up. I will post again after it is installed.

Macutak,

Hopefully this will clear the air to cut down on the confusion, from your post its sounds like you are misinformed on a few things i would like to help you out with.

  • Salt water package, full closed cooling, half closed cooling, or raw water cooling - no matter what you have you will have normal water coming out of your exhaust.
  • There is plenty of clearance to install the fitting for the heater, your heat exchanger should not be in the way, if it is, use a 45 or 90 degree fitting.
  • Are you running the hoses up under the gunwale? Both the supply and return are run right next to each other. If the kit was being installed in our shop, we would be pulling the hoses thru the stringer just like the factory would install them.
  • You can most definitely do a heater with a closed cooling. You can not do a hot water shower (actually you can but the kit is $1,000+ so most people opt out when they hear about the price tag)

Hope this helps you out, since we are right next to the salt water we work on a lot of closed cooled engines.

-Paul

Link to comment

Macutak,

Hopefully this will clear the air to cut down on the confusion, from your post its sounds like you are misinformed on a few things i would like to help you out with.

  • Salt water package, full closed cooling, half closed cooling, or raw water cooling - no matter what you have you will have normal water coming out of your exhaust.
  • There is plenty of clearance to install the fitting for the heater, your heat exchanger should not be in the way, if it is, use a 45 or 90 degree fitting.
  • Are you running the hoses up under the gunwale? Both the supply and return are run right next to each other. If the kit was being installed in our shop, we would be pulling the hoses thru the stringer just like the factory would install them.
  • You can most definitely do a heater with a closed cooling. You can not do a hot water shower (actually you can but the kit is $1,000+ so most people opt out when they hear about the price tag)

Hope this helps you out, since we are right next to the salt water we work on a lot of closed cooled engines.

-Paul

Perfect. Thanks so much for the info. I knew where to string them and have a fish tape for that purpose. I am running them up the same hole for the ballast hoses on the starboard side. I just was asking which way to go on the engine to get over to the hole and up the stringer...up and over, or down and under. I am planning on going down and under for the supply side and up and over for the return. Again, thanks for the help.

Link to comment

Macutak,

Hopefully this will clear the air to cut down on the confusion, from your post its sounds like you are misinformed on a few things i would like to help you out with.

  • Salt water package, full closed cooling, half closed cooling, or raw water cooling - no matter what you have you will have normal water coming out of your exhaust.
  • There is plenty of clearance to install the fitting for the heater, your heat exchanger should not be in the way, if it is, use a 45 or 90 degree fitting.
  • Are you running the hoses up under the gunwale? Both the supply and return are run right next to each other. If the kit was being installed in our shop, we would be pulling the hoses thru the stringer just like the factory would install them.
  • You can most definitely do a heater with a closed cooling. You can not do a hot water shower (actually you can but the kit is $1,000+ so most people opt out when they hear about the price tag)

Hope this helps you out, since we are right next to the salt water we work on a lot of closed cooled engines.

-Paul

Link to comment

Macutak,

Hopefully this will clear the air to cut down on the confusion, from your post its sounds like you are misinformed on a few things i would like to help you out with.

  • Salt water package, full closed cooling, half closed cooling, or raw water cooling - no matter what you have you will have normal water coming out of your exhaust.
  • There is plenty of clearance to install the fitting for the heater, your heat exchanger should not be in the way, if it is, use a 45 or 90 degree fitting.
  • Are you running the hoses up under the gunwale? Both the supply and return are run right next to each other. If the kit was being installed in our shop, we would be pulling the hoses thru the stringer just like the factory would install them.
  • You can most definitely do a heater with a closed cooling. You can not do a hot water shower (actually you can but the kit is $1,000+ so most people opt out when they hear about the price tag)

Hope this helps you out, since we are right next to the salt water we work on a lot of closed cooled engines.

-Paul

So here are some photos of my heat exchanger set up. I think the plug you identified on the side is occupied by the hose coming off the front of the thermostat housing in the first picture and over to the side of the water pump pictured in the third photo below. I think I see the plug I am supposed to use right under the carburetor cover and I included two photos of that. Hope I posted these correctly off photobucket.

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff382/Macutak/IMG_0029.jpg

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff382/Macutak/IMG_0028.jpg

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff382/Macutak/IMG_0027.jpg

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff382/Macutak/IMG_0026.jpg

Link to comment

Sorry Kelly this is probably my fault for taking Jon with us on our boat and he loved the heater. Good luck with the install, you are going to love it once it is in.

Link to comment

I don't know if it will help but you can come over and check out how the heater pulls water from my engine. I have the hammerhead engine though so it might be a bit different.

Link to comment

Sorry Kelly this is probably my fault for taking Jon with us on our boat and he loved the heater. Good luck with the install, you are going to love it once it is in.

Definitely your fault. But we really are going to enjoy it I am sure. Can't get it in fast enough. My heat exchanger also changes the install because Malibu took the return to the pump at the 9:00 position so Heatercraft now has me using the half inch plug that sticks up at the 12:00 position for the return and the recessed plug under the carburetor cover for the supply. I want to install a ball valve as well that will allow me to shut off the flow to the heater core on the supply side during the summer so it is not hot under my feet. (I know, I am a little baby.)

Edited by Macutak
Link to comment

I opted for 3 of the hot tubes and 2 of them are extra long so it will reach all the way to the back seat. I also got the blankets from Bakes Marine that allow you to hook up two hot tubes inside the blanket. The outside of the blanket is gortek material so windproof and you tuck you feet in a special pocket at the bottom. Who needs to stop going when a Malibu can still break ice?

Edited by Macutak
Link to comment
  • 3 weeks later...

I completed the Heater Craft Install and all the fittings were entirely manufactured by me. LOL When I started the fitting under the spark arrester, it became evident that it would not fit without kinking the hose, so I needed an elbow. (not supplied).

http://i1233.photobu...ak/IMG_0032.jpg

But the elbow would not thread because it was too big to rotate next to the housing next to the inlet. So I finally just cut off half of the elbow and ground it round so it would have enough clearance to rotate.

http://i1233.photobu...ak/IMG_0051.jpg

Then I turned to the outlet side. This was right behind the water pump flywheel. Heatercraft directed me to these two locations since the ones they normally use were occupied by my salt water system. But the one centered behind the flywheel was right under my heat exchanger and it had a 3/4 fitting instead of 5/8 inch, so I would also need a reducer. Problem is, which all that screwed together, it would be too high, so I had to cut off half of the threads on both the reducer and the the elbow. Of course as I went to put it together, the elbow here would not rotate either, so I had to cut off half of the elbow just like the other one. WOW. If someone comes on here and tells me they have smaller fittings that I could have used, I will shoot myself. I went to several plumbing suppiers though, so I am fairly confident I had no other choice. Here is the newly manufactured fittings for this installation.

http://i1233.photobu.../IMG_0048-1.jpg

There was barely enough room to put these together when I got done, and then I found out the hose clamp could only go on one way because the screw came so close to the belt.

http://i1233.photobu...ak/IMG_0054.jpg

After I turned it around, the final connection looked like this.

http://i1233.photobu...ak/IMG_0055.jpg

So then I opted to install a valve to allow me to shut the heat off at my feet altogether in the summer when I do not need it.

http://i1233.photobu...ak/IMG_0053.jpg

We went out last weekend and the water was 64 degrees and air temp ranged from 74 to 79. The heaters were fantastic. My ten year old even went surfing and was pretty cold because his wet suit was too loose and was letting all the cold water in. He was so warm in the heater blanket with the tubes hooked up that he fell asleep within 2 minutes after getting under it.

So sorry about the long post. But I promised HeaterCraft after all their help that I would post this and add that it does not matter which hose you hook up to the heater core. and does not matter which way you mount it. It just needs to stay well below the level of the top of your heat exchanger. This is a great feature since we will never have to winterize our heaters since we run coolant. So no leaks and years of service. And I learned a lot about my engine I never knew. Hope this saves you the many many plumbing trips I made for this install. You will only use one barb fitting from the original HeaterCraft install kit. If you just order from them, I bet you can get closer to what you actually need from them. But you will still need to modify every connection. Well worth the work.

Edited by Macutak
Link to comment

What you needed for the top of the engine was a 45 degree elbow and it would require no modification to make it work. That's how the bu's come from the factory.

-Chris

Link to comment

Don't apologize for a long post, that's all really good information. I'm about 1 or 2 cold trips away from getting the CFO to sign off on a heater. :thumbup:

I'm surprised they said it doesn't matter how it's mounted, wouldn't you want the ports on the bottom so it's easier to drain and winterize?

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...