ETX Cat Cooling system upgrade

[G-Mack]

I may be going back also.

[Dare2goBare]

Now you have me thinking for myself "if it ain't broke don't fix it". Just got the boat in the water for the summer and she is running like a top! Do I really want to mess around with it when it is running good right now?

Dead on....over the years I've found that to be the best Methodology. ...if it ain't broke fingers off.....lol....

Ocean......I'm around till Wed. then heading up to Kalamalka lake Thursday early till Sat. If your thinking to drop by

this week just PM. Mined you I have the L96 so the plumbing is some what different over the 350's.

Edited June 22, 2014 by Dare2goBare

[oceanbu]

Dead on....over the years I've found that to be the best Methodology. ...if it ain't broke fingers off.....lol....

Ocean......I'm around till Wed. then heading up to Kalamalka lake Thursday early till Sat. If your thinking to drop by

this week just PM. Mined you I have the L96 so the plumbing is some what different over the 350's.

I'm thinking it's run just fine for 7 years so why change it? If I change my mind I'll hit you up. Wish I was going to Kal lake! Have fun!

[Andrew63]

Sent an inquiry to Indmar seeking details of the change, received the response below

"Here is a diagram that shows the revised water flow for the 5.7L catalyst engines.

Larry Engelbert

Indmar Customer Service"

Have sent off another query for hopefully, a short simple answer for the reasons behind the change & if there were any other cooling changes apart from the plumbing.

A few observations.

1. 2011 had the 90 degree 1" hose from the top of the CAT to the Thermostat housing, I have split one of these. Not sure if this was due to a thermostat playing up or otherwise as I changed the thermostat just to make sure. See attached image of the split

2. Early 2012, this same hose was replaced with a formed pipe with straight rubber sections for the connections only.

Removing the rubber section which split on my 2011, improvement?

3. Late 2011, this pipe is re routed from the top of the CAT to the dump pipe, further improvement?

ETX CATWater Flow RWC- Re-Plumb.pdf

[G-Mack]

I have never seen a hose go but many of us with the older ETX Cats have nylon fittings on the cats. I have failed one of those... when I lay the boat over for surfing ... the right side shows alot of steam as the Cats were essentially gravity fed... lay the boat over will starve the higher manifold ( steam and failed nylon fitting)... and so on.

It got more interesting today.... I played around a bit and ran the boat again.... ran perfect... tons of pressure fed water through the cats and overboard... cats never got hotter than the water temp on the fake a lake. and easily 2-3 gallons of water a minute out of each exhaust.

I am thinking... since yesterday was the first run up of the year and I had a dry block..... I may have had an airlock going on and opening the thermostat cleared the airlock and fixed it.

[Andrew63]

In relation to my inquiry to Indmar.

Sent this off

I have a 2011 Monsoon EXT CAT engine where I have experienced the Upper CAT hose splitting as in the attached image.

Noticed the earlier 2012 had a metal section in the area of the split.

I assume this would be due to what I experienced becoming too common.

Would I be correct in assuming the late 2012 change is to further improve the cooling/water flow?

I also assume there were no other changes to the cooling system in the thermostat housing.

Just wanting to make sure to go down the path of the revised water flow, I am not overlooking any details

The reply from Larry

Replumbing per the diagram I sent improves the cooling flow through the system, particularly before the thermostat opens.

The replumb is just as effective using regular hose as it is with the metal tubing.

The metal tubing is a production upgrade that allows us to get more utility from some new equipment. It is a "nice to have" not a "need to have".

No other changes except for the replumb are needed.

Sounds like the change will help cooling overall

Edited June 23, 2014 by Andrew63

[oceanbu]

i will get it scanned and linked.

I should try to see about money back. By 2013 they were doing the cooling this way... dealer showed me a 12 that was upgraded. I was told this is for all ETX Cats but check with your dealer.

In written terms... I am referencing off of a V- Drive. Rear is relative to the boat.. rear is closer to the front of the engine. I am sure I will get the "this post is worthless with pictures" joker but I am not near the paperwork or a scanner for a few days.There may be some one out there that can.

Dis-assembly - per side

- remove the hoses completely from the boat to the middle and front 1" cooling hose connections on the thermostat housing. One to the top of the Cat and to the connection under the SS exhaust elbow (45 degree). The two larger hose for raw water in and water pump circulation remain connected on the thermostat housing.

-remove the 1" hose from the block connection above the waterpump to the exhaust manifold lower at the rear.

Now you have the two 1" fittings on the thermostat housing, the two 1" connections on the exhaust manifold, the 1" block connection and the 1" connect on the SS exhaust elbow open.

Install - Per side

Need two Dayco 70564 molded hoses, 2 x 51" 1" cooling hose, 2 x 13" 1" cooling hose.

1) replace your thermostat... not required.. but you are 2 bolts away.

2) Use the molded dayco hose to connect the block connection above the water pump to the rear 1" connection on the thermostat housing (lower of the two on the housing)

3) Connect the lower exhaust manifold connection to the front (upper) thermostat housing connection with the 13" hose.Tip - install the thermostat connection first.

4) Connect the 51" hose to the connection on the SS exhaust elbow, route the hose around the muffler and back up to the connection on the top of the exhaust manifold.

If I save one person from paying $400 for a little bit of cooling hose.... I may feel just a little better.

so the hose opening is 1" but does anyone know for length is he talking inches or centimetres? I just got to thinking that 51" of hose is a lot of hose and G-Mack is from Canada.

Edited July 8, 2014 by oceanbu

[oceanbu]

^^not in front of my boat right now but looking at this I am confused. 51" is like just over 4ft of hose. In the above he says you need 2 x 51" x 1" but in the diagram from Indmar it just says 1" x 51". It would seem to me that both sides of hose equal 51" so therefore I would cut the 51" length of hose in half and that would give me enough for each side?

Does this make sense? I don't have my boat in front of me but it seems like 4ft3in of hose on each side to reach from the 90 elbow on the top of the exhaust manifold to the barb on the bottom of the SS exhaust dump is way to much?

[G-Mack]

yep the long hose is 51". With the block connection re-routed to the middle thermostat connection with the Dayco moulded hose the access to the connection to the bottom of the Stainless Steel exhaust elbow (water dump into the exhaust) is limited. You take the 51" long hose connect bottom of the elbow then the hose goes towards the back of the boat, loops around the muffler then up to the top connection on the exhaust manifold.... not near the boat to take a picture but it took me a bit to think it through.

[oceanbu]

I suppose I could route it the other way too towards the front of the boat back underneath and up to the SS dump in the back. I wonder from an aesthetics standpoint if that would look better.

If you can snap a pic of your that would be great.

[G-Mack]

Here is a picture showing the hose going from the elbow and over the muffler. You could route forward and under and back up if you feel.. just or use some 90 degree elbows like the new style installation.

[G-Mack]

coming around the muffler and into the dump connection.

[gorilla]

huh.....my dumps already have 90deg elbows on them....I think....????

I'll have to go look. I got the pre-formed hoses the other day and gonna swing my Autozone or OReilly's and get a long length of heater hose. Also picked up a new thermostat and will change that while I'm tearing it all apart (just because it's an 07 with the original one).

[ciciwaken]

I am also following this thread closely as I had to hoses fail this weekend. One spliting and one started to smoke/melt or steam coming from where it connected to the brass hitting on my cat on the driver side. I feel very lost you all. G-mack has been a HUGE help to us and giving us pointers. I am gonna try to find some hoses today. To make it go back to original until we can get the system set up like this on the thread. We are just in our summer here in oklahoma so i want the boat running again.

[gorilla]

I've got 10 hours on my update and the cats are WAY cooler this way. I can touch them after a run. They are just very warm to the touch, not scalding hot like they used to be. This also helps keep the enigne compartment cooler, which is very noticeable when you open the hatch to get out gear. The heat used to radiate out around the engine tray and you could feel it in your arms/face when grabbing for gear. The only thing I've noticed is it takes about double the time for the motor to reach 160°. I'm thinking this is due to all that heat being dumped out the exhaust all the time vs flowing from the motor, through the cats and then out the dumps.

[jwl019]

Will have to keep an eye on this thread and also this one: http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/47808-new-kit-for-manifold-overheating-on-hh-and-monsoon-cats/ since I just picked up a 2010 VLX to see what the verdict is on the best method of fixing a potential problem I may encounter.

[ciciwaken]

well after working over the exhaust tubes tonight and trying to find someone here with marine exhaust hoses, we are gonna be ordering the replumb kit tomorrow and new thermostat, our stat still works ( did the pot of water trick) but it looks rough and I think its time. Now I cant call bakes right now but the nylon fitting needs to be 1/2 thread to a 1 inch barb correct?

Edited June 9, 2015 by ciciwaken

[oceanbu]

well after working over the exhaust tubes tonight and trying to find someone here with marine exhaust hoses, we are gonna be ordering the replumb kit tomorrow and new thermostat, our stat still works ( did the pot of water trick) but it looks rough and I think its time. Now I cant call bakes right now but the nylon fitting needs to be 1/2 thread to a 1 inch barb correct?

Yes 1/2 thread to 1 inch barb. I made the mistake of ordering 3/4 and it was too big.

[ciciwaken]

Thanks oceanbu! Will be calling bakes this morning and praying we are back on a local lake Saturday.. hate making payments and can't use it.

[ciciwaken]

Oh another question- we let the water drain out of the raw water line that goes to the tranny- was that a bad idea? We were looking at the stat housing and wanted to clean it so we took those hoses off. I don't want to air lock anything up

[jwl019]

Oh another question- we let the water drain out of the raw water line that goes to the tranny- was that a bad idea? We were looking at the stat housing and wanted to clean it so we took those hoses off. I don't want to air lock anything up

You should be fine, will be about the same concept as winterization and the first start of the year. If you have the shift interlock button (little knob you pull out beside the shifter), you can pull it out and rev up the boat on the trailer some to make sure the water gets a good prime and is sucking in the water.

[jwl019]

I contacted the previous owner of the boat I just got and wound up being pretty lucky that he had already had all this replaced last year, so guess I do not have to worry about it anymore. I will just check the manifolds when surfing next week just to see what they feel like after a few runs.

[ciciwaken]

Thats great news. i dont believe our boat has that knob. But i will look this weekend. I wish I could met to the owner. But it was a consignment deal, I have his name but dont wanna seem weird.

[ciciwaken]

did this upgrade this last weekend! we are beyond pleased!! Ran it for about 2 hours on a local lake, after that i could touch and hold my hand on the manifolds. Made everything run cooler, now i didnt see a diff in engine temp was between 145 and 160, never above, but still stay much cooler. I would say if this hasnt been done to your boat and you dont want the melting rubber smell from a exhaust tube getting too hot, i would do this. we ordered hoses from bakes. one thing we did have to do is slide the silent rider alittle higher on the SS dump of one side but that seems to be nothing related to the cooling issue, just wasnt sitting right in the rubber fittings off the SS dump.

[Andrew63]

^^not in front of my boat right now but looking at this I am confused. 51" is like just over 4ft of hose. In the above he says you need 2 x 51" x 1" but in the diagram from Indmar it just says 1" x 51". It would seem to me that both sides of hose equal 51" so therefore I would cut the 51" length of hose in half and that would give me enough for each side?

Does this make sense? I don't have my boat in front of me but it seems like 4ft3in of hose on each side to reach from the 90 elbow on the top of the exhaust manifold to the barb on the bottom of the SS exhaust dump is way to much?

Penny dropped this morning on why we have confusion over the 51" length hose

The hose lengths are in inches & correct for a Center Mount per side.

Remember the 51" hose needs to run from the thermostat housing out, under the exhaust manifold to the barb in the stainless dump pipe at the rear of the engine in a CM

A rear mount with the exhaust manifolds reversed, IE. outlet facing the raw water pump, should require less hose.

Would need to make sure the hose is not kinked while routing the hose.

The 13" sections & Dayco elbows will be the same.

The 51" section is snug on the CM, per side.

Could check using say a garden hose or similar to determine the route & length required for the rear mount.

The hose is not overly expensive, could just pick up say a 6' length to cover both sides & cut it to suit.

I don't have a rear mount so don't hang me if my gustimate of 6' is a tad short.

Would be helpfull if the rear mount length could be posted for furure reference.