Heater for '98 Sport

I thought the 143 was for carbureted engines, and the 160 for fuel injected.

Not sure what the logic is on that, but that's how Nautiqueparts and Skidim list the thermostats.

Well I assume it's 143, I've not replaced it since I've had the boat. Not sure which was stock, but my understanding is a 143 stat will run 160 on the gauge, which is what mine does, and a 160 stat runs closer to 180 on the gauge. If I'm wrong about that I'd be curious to hear more.

Also, thinking about this more, I think the plumbing the way I have it, without the small hole in the Y restricting flow, will tend to not let the engine warm up to temp as quickly unless under load. I'm pulling hot engine water from the manifold and returning it to the raw water side. So, even if the stat is closed I'm still robbing hot water from the engine side of the stat and instead of it returning to the engine, it can flow out the other side of a closed stat in the raw water loop.

I'm not saying this plumbing is wrong, just might explain the different temps I'm seeing on the gauge.

Mine had the factory "T" in the suction but I replaced it with the wye fitting and get better heat at idle.

Sorry no pics, I can take a few when I'm back at the boat. One hose goes to the intake, where the temp sender was threaded in on the port side. I put in a nipple, T, and street elbow on top of the T with hose barb threaded into it. So, T is mounted vertically and water flows out the top to the hose, the temp sender threaded into the middle of the T.

Other hose is cut into the raw water intake hose, directly below the engine where it feeds into the raw water pump. I couldn't push the Heatercraft Y-pipe into my old, hard PCM hose so I bought a pair of 1" hose barbs and a 1" T, cut a section out of the hose and put the T in, with the heater hose heading into the T. I had planned to reduce to 1/4" into the T, and put a small valve in to control flow, but didn't have room and just connected the hose barb directly to the T so there's no on-purpose flow restriction like you'd have with the Y. I thought that might cause problems, but seems to work very well. There is definitely a noticeable difference at idle, but still warm.

Hope that made sense.

I got the heater installed last weekend. Much more of a knuckle-buster than I expected, lots of time squeezed into the space under the dash, and had a very hard time getting the hoses snaked through to the engine. But, all done and works very well, kept warm even at idle with my 143 stat.

I ended up mounting the fixed vent and one hot tube on the footboard, the other hot tube is left loose and tucked under the walk-through step. It isn't in the way, and I think won't get crushed, gives a lot of flexibility to go all the way over to the port gunwale for the passengers. I know it's not as tidy as some would like, but I'm happy with it.

The temp gauge reads a bit different. It's either because I re-located the sender from being directly into the manifold to a T extending up from the manifold, or it might just be the heater keeping the engine cooler. It stayed around 140-150 on the gauge, normally runs just a tick over 160. After a while it finally heated up to just below 160 on the gauge. I'll watch it and see what the pattern is.

Very glad to finally have heat!

So this is typical for me, I was saying I was putting in a heater back in September 2012, now here I am 2 years later and I'm finally actually doing it. I bought a Heatercraft 230, which has 2 larger vents and hot tubes, and one smaller vent that can go to the driver's feet.

I know I'll put the small outlet to the driver's feet on the kick panel, and one hot tube to the passenger side of the kick panel. The question is where to put the 2nd hot tube. Has anyone mounted one in the walk-through panel to the left of the driver's foot compartment? It is upholstered but I think there is room to mount the tube without it bothering the driver's knees or anything else.

I think there's room if I wanted to just mount it on the kick panel like the other one, but thought it might be more helpful for passengers if it came out of the walk-through. Thoughts?

My '95 came stock with the two vent heater and shower. The factory position for the switch is next to the lanyard behind the throttle.

My wife likes the retractable vent, she pulls it out and lays it on the floor at her feet then drapes a towel over hers and the kids legs and the heat warms the lower half of the body.
The stationary vent blows more than enough heat under the helm to keep the driver's lower half warm.
I also recirculate antifreeze through the whole system and motor for winterizing.

When you have a dry suit and a thermal onesie on anything that gives even a little heat is welcome, yes it works but its not great.
The rear vents would work better with flexible tubes that you could shove up your sleeves

I am not sure on the model of heater I have installed as it was installed by the previous owner but I do have 4 outlets which are directed as follows, 1 to drivers feet, 1 to drivers right hand, 1 to passenger, 1 all the way to the rear seat which then splits into 2 and come out in the seat base for the passengers feet.

The fan speed and on/off switch is a single rotary dial on the dash and is pretty unobtrusive.

The winterization of the core was pretty straight forward although I had already blown all the water out of it with lung power before it was topped with antifreeze with the rest of the system.

I have attached a couple of pictures showing the connections and the outlet on the passenger side (same on drivers side), obviously my boat is an older 1989 rather than 98 sport but it might give you some ideas.

Are the units listed on Skidim the same as the factory ones? Should I be looking elsewhere?

Unless you plan to run antifreeze through the heater core to winterize it, I wouldn't recommend the unit from Summit. The factory heater core has the bottom port that is even with the bottom of the unit to allow all liquid to drain out when you drain the heater hose. From the picture on Summit's website, it appears that the bottom port is more than an inch from the bottom of heater core. It would be nearly impossible to get all liquid out of the bottom which would require you to use antifreeze.

In my sport 1992 I previously owned, I mounted the 4 outlet unit against the driver side footpanel on the inside. This eliminated most of the space back there, but heat was more important.

Speed selection: high or off is the only thing you will use. I eliminated the switch al together and turned it on/off with the breaker on the dashboard.

2 or 4 outlets depends on your plan for the heat exhausts. What really matters is the BTU the unit produces. 40k heat resulted in a system that did not force me to extract the vents every time I used it, the 28k I use in a SANTE 2005 of a friend is always out and extracted to heat the parts that need it most. Not really scientific, but for your info.

Something I forgot the first time building in heat:

1 - Mount the Y-pipe for the hot water flow. No Y pipe is less flow, and less heat
2 - Mount a 160 degree thermostat, this will allow the unit to produce the BTU it can deliver
3 - If you have other heat demanding parts, consider their consumption. In my sport the propane evaporator consumed almost all the heat available in the system already.
4 - DONT FORGET TO WINTERIZE THE HEATER

I'll get under there and take a close look at the space available. All I have will be behind the angled footboard. I believe just forward of there is the molded battery box under the bow cushions, probably doesn't leave much room.

On the '98 it has the flat bow area with storage underneath. So far I haven't used that storage, though it's always wet there so I pull the cushion and open the hatch to let things dry out. I wonder, if space is a problem, if I can mount it down there, would make for a longer run of coolant hoses and blower vent hose but would solve the room problem.

8122pbrainard wrote: David, Is this planned for the 63 or 98?

Sorry, I should have made that clearer in the post, it's for the '98. I'll edit the original post. The heater in the '63 is stop the boat, raise the cover, and warm hands over the manifolds for a bit!

watrski wrote: Buy this one: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-991102-1/

For Tim here's a proper link since he stll hasn't figured out how to do it!!!