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2009 Wakesetter 20 VTX hot water shower connection


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I recently purchased a 2009 Wakesetter 20 VTX and I am very happy to be part of the Malibu family.  My VTX has the Monsoon 350 engine and has been great so far.  As I was going through the boat doing "new owner" maintenance I realized that the shower wasn't working properly. After digging around a bit I realized that the hot water hose was connected to the shower side of things, but wasn't connected on the other end as shown in the picture.8x8lBtNzexhVnu6y1nV2p65cEacLir4tKLbiBpqe

I contacted the previous owner and he had no idea, but gave me the contact information of the individual who did maintenance on the boat. I contacted the maintainer and he wasn't really willing to help me, but indicated that he thought it had been disconnected for a couple of years.  I reached out the my local Malibu dealer service center and they indicated that they didn't really install showers any more and that I would have to bring the boat in so they could figure out where the connection should be. I would really prefer to do this myself, but after a lot of digging I can't figure out where to connect this hot water hose.

Does anyone know where this hot water hose is supposed to connect?

 

Thanks much in advance!

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Usually one of the engine drain plugs is used for the pick up for the hot water shower. Instead of a simple plug there’s a hose connector installed.

On your engine there should be a knock sensor instead of a plug, IDK how the plumbing is done in that case, but take a closer look, pretty sure, you’ll be able to figure it out.

Edited by Chaabo
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9 hours ago, Chaabo said:

Usually one of the engine drain plugs is used for the pick up for the hot water shower. Instead of a simple plug there’s a hose connector installed.

On your engine there should be a knock sensor instead of a plug, IDK how the plumbing is done in that case, but take a closer look, pretty sure, you’ll be able to figure it out.

I thought I would be able to figure it out as well, but no luck so far. I have the knock sensor in the engine drain plug. I looked closely for another attachment of some kind, whether straight off the engine or another location, but can't find anything that looks like it should work. There isn't any water dumping into the bilge so whatever there is/was to connect to it is certainly plugged currently.

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You have 2 drain plugs. One on either side of the block. Don’t know if both are used for knock sensors or not.  (All my Malibus had the LCR engines w/o knock sensors, so I have no experience with your setup.) If there’s knock sensors on both sides you probably need to put some t-fitting between the engine and the sensor to accommodate a hot water hose barb. Think it is 1/4 NPT IIRC.

 

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So I have no experience with the hot water shower but I don't think you want to do anything with the knock sensors. you don't want them to be shielded from sensing engine knock.   

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26 minutes ago, Sixball said:

So I have no experience with the hot water shower but I don't think you want to do anything with the knock sensors. you don't want them to be shielded from sensing engine knock.   

This agrees with everything I've read about the knock sensors. 

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If you are using a brass t-fitting it won’t stop the knock sensor from working properly. As it is a self sealing NPT thread, there wouldn’t even Teflon tape be involved, so any knocking would transfer from the engine block right through the fitting to the sensor. Anyhow - I’m pretty sure, that’s the way Malibu Installs the hot water shower.

Would be nice if someone with a factory installed shower could chime in here.

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I have a '08 VTX with a monsoon 340. Your setup looks pretty similar to mine. The shower hookup pictured is on the starboard side correct? If I get out to my boat this evening I can look at my setup and see what I can find. Hopefully it will help you out.

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14 minutes ago, LateNightSalami said:

I have a '08 VTX with a monsoon 340. Your setup looks pretty similar to mine. The shower hookup pictured is on the starboard side correct? If I get out to my boat this evening I can look at my setup and see what I can find. Hopefully it will help you out.

Yes, it's on the starboard side.  Anything you can find would be greatly appreciated.

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On my 08 VTX the hot supply for the shower is tied into the coolant port on the cylinder head.  The port is often used for coolant fan switches on SBC's  Ours is tied into the port side, but the heads are the same.  On the starboard side the port should be between the first two spark plugs, from the front of the engine / back of the boat.

 

 

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I took a picture last night of my setup. The hookup is actually in your picture next to the other bolts you see along the bottom of the side of your engine. It is the hole in the middle. Hope this helps.

 

http://imgur.com/gallery/EJETPVO

Edited by LateNightSalami
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ahopkins22LSV
1 hour ago, LateNightSalami said:

I took a picture last night of my setup. The hookup is actually in ypur picture next to the other bolts you see along the bottom of the aide of your engine. It is the hole in the middle. Hope this helps.

 

http://imgur.com/gallery/EJETPVO

 

8E18DCF6-88EA-47F7-8F4D-A009716EAD74.jpeg

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1 hour ago, ahopkinsVTX said:

 

8E18DCF6-88EA-47F7-8F4D-A009716EAD74.jpeg

So my boat has a similar setup on the exhaust manifold, and if you run it long term with the engine off it can actually push water in to the manifold. I don't know if a check valve is off, but I need to troubleshoot. I may be interpreting the picture incorrectly though.

 

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The red hose goes from the manifold (?) to the mixer under the rear seat. Then the mixer goes to the shower pump itself. If the engine is off I don't think there would be enough flow through the system to get any pressure. The pump is drawing water from the engine also. I would be surprised if you would be able to back flow water into the manifold somehow.

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On 6/6/2019 at 5:48 AM, LateNightSalami said:

I took a picture last night of my setup. The hookup is actually in your picture next to the other bolts you see along the bottom of the side of your engine. It is the hole in the middle. Hope this helps.

 

http://imgur.com/gallery/EJETPVO

That was very helpful!  When I went to look at mine the hex attachment for the plug in that location had been totally stripped and I was left with a plug that I couldn't get out.  Don't cringe too much, but I ended up drilling a hole through the plug and using a screw remover to get it out, and that thing was TIGHT! I broke a few tools getting it out, but eventually got it. Now I can't wait to try it out!

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Just as an update. Took her out yesterday and she worked like a champ!  The wife and kids absolutely loved being able to dump warm water in their wet suits before and after a run. Thanks for all the help.

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