Keywords: Water Heater; E34; Holding Tank; Wall;
I am biting the bullet! After an oh-so-faint new odor from underneath the engine (the nasty kind) and some 'ponding' just behind the muffler I embarked on the project that many of the E34 crowd have discussed: the wall!
My water heater (ATWOOD/SEAWARD) rusted through last season, and I had been unable to remove due to the holding tank hoses just above it. Now the holding tank pump-out fitting developed a crack and I am finding contents migrating underneath the pan into a compartment (inaccessible, of course) underneath the shaft/stuffing box area. My vent hoses had no connection anymore, and, at the end of the day, I was just very curious as to what was behind the 'wall' in the stbd lazarette. If it IS broke, finally an excuse to fix it!
After removing 3-4 tie-down pieces of wood and the coolant surge tank and sawing off the holding tank hoses and capping them (!) the holding tank (almost empty) was easy to remove through the hatch. About 25 unwieldy pounds. Biggest problem was not to spill the residual contents. I failed. All hoses were at the end of their life. The vinyl wrapping was coming off nearly everywhere, and the vinyl-reinfoced vent hose was very gummy. Picture 1 shows the result. Between the tank and the water heater was a piece of veneer plywood which had badly rotted away at the bottom. The tank (Ronco Plastics B187) is still available for about $170 + extras. I have some thoughts about different fittings etc. There is another thread from Glen (?) on the Ronco operation somewhere.
After removing both coolant hoses from the water heater and keeping them high (minimal spillage) and disconnecting the power cable (I had already short-circuited the in/out water hoses last year) I removed the four tie-down screws w/ finishing washers. All badly corroded, along with the base of the heater. Extraction of the empty unit was easy. Spillage was nill. Picture 2 shows the now empty space. The heater sat on a fiberglass frame. Very nice and usable for other things.
The wall has three (3) #10 screws behind where the holding tank was, and it is now clear that, unless you can remove the tank or move it 'up' by many inches, you will not be able to access them. I removed all screws, and the wall came out fine, too. I can see how Tom did his work on the fuel hose. It does bend rather sharply just at the end of the wall towards the fuel tank to port. Pictures 3/4 show the behind-the-wall area fwd and aft My fuel hose looks fine but I am still pondering. The vent hoses were totally shot, torn in at least four places and I just cut them out. The nice blower deserves better. They wil be replaced with a single Al hose to extract heat from the engine room (as discussed elsewhere). I generally found all wiring from the factory was 'ok' but not pretty. The previous owner must have thrown in his own wiring here and there (non-marine), and they are obvious candidates for replacement.
I have a few more things I want to assess/check/replace in this space, now that everything is open. Then I want to Precote/Bilgecoat the area before installing the new stuff. More updates coming...
BTW, I do not endorse nor do I have commercial interests in any brand mentioned here or the Lysol line of products.
I am biting the bullet! After an oh-so-faint new odor from underneath the engine (the nasty kind) and some 'ponding' just behind the muffler I embarked on the project that many of the E34 crowd have discussed: the wall!
My water heater (ATWOOD/SEAWARD) rusted through last season, and I had been unable to remove due to the holding tank hoses just above it. Now the holding tank pump-out fitting developed a crack and I am finding contents migrating underneath the pan into a compartment (inaccessible, of course) underneath the shaft/stuffing box area. My vent hoses had no connection anymore, and, at the end of the day, I was just very curious as to what was behind the 'wall' in the stbd lazarette. If it IS broke, finally an excuse to fix it!
After removing 3-4 tie-down pieces of wood and the coolant surge tank and sawing off the holding tank hoses and capping them (!) the holding tank (almost empty) was easy to remove through the hatch. About 25 unwieldy pounds. Biggest problem was not to spill the residual contents. I failed. All hoses were at the end of their life. The vinyl wrapping was coming off nearly everywhere, and the vinyl-reinfoced vent hose was very gummy. Picture 1 shows the result. Between the tank and the water heater was a piece of veneer plywood which had badly rotted away at the bottom. The tank (Ronco Plastics B187) is still available for about $170 + extras. I have some thoughts about different fittings etc. There is another thread from Glen (?) on the Ronco operation somewhere.
After removing both coolant hoses from the water heater and keeping them high (minimal spillage) and disconnecting the power cable (I had already short-circuited the in/out water hoses last year) I removed the four tie-down screws w/ finishing washers. All badly corroded, along with the base of the heater. Extraction of the empty unit was easy. Spillage was nill. Picture 2 shows the now empty space. The heater sat on a fiberglass frame. Very nice and usable for other things.
The wall has three (3) #10 screws behind where the holding tank was, and it is now clear that, unless you can remove the tank or move it 'up' by many inches, you will not be able to access them. I removed all screws, and the wall came out fine, too. I can see how Tom did his work on the fuel hose. It does bend rather sharply just at the end of the wall towards the fuel tank to port. Pictures 3/4 show the behind-the-wall area fwd and aft My fuel hose looks fine but I am still pondering. The vent hoses were totally shot, torn in at least four places and I just cut them out. The nice blower deserves better. They wil be replaced with a single Al hose to extract heat from the engine room (as discussed elsewhere). I generally found all wiring from the factory was 'ok' but not pretty. The previous owner must have thrown in his own wiring here and there (non-marine), and they are obvious candidates for replacement.
I have a few more things I want to assess/check/replace in this space, now that everything is open. Then I want to Precote/Bilgecoat the area before installing the new stuff. More updates coming...
BTW, I do not endorse nor do I have commercial interests in any brand mentioned here or the Lysol line of products.
Attachments
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Holding Tank Removed.jpg -
Water Heater Removed.jpg -
Behind Wall Aft.jpg -
Behind Wall Fwd.jpg
