Engine Installation
This step involves tapping into the engine to get the hot water for your heater. Start by changing the thermostat in your engine. By switching it out for a model that will allow the engine to run at 160 degrees (rather than the usual temperature of around 142 degrees), your heater will provide more heat. This will involve the installation of a new gasket as well. If you're not sure about doing this yourself, have the dealer do it for you the next time you take the boat in.

5/8" fitting in intake manifold (click to enlarge)

Next, you need to install two fittings into the engine that will allow you to attach the heater hoses. The first fitting will go somewhere on the intake manifold toward the front of the engine or on the thermostat itself. Hopefully, you'll have a cooling system plug that can be removed to accommodate the 5/8" barbed fitting provided. If not, you may have to tee into the temperature-sending unit. Be sure to use Teflon tape on all your threads in order to prevent leaks.

5/8" fitting in water pump (click to enlarge)

The second 5/8" barbed fitting will go into the water pump. Hopefully you have a plug that can be removed to accomodate it. If not, you may need to install a hose tee into the hose that goes between the thermostat and the water pump. I had a pretty tough time getting the fitting into the water pump. Although I'm told this is uncommon, I had to remove the muffler from the back of the exhaust in order to have enough room for a wrench to get in there.

Once you've got your thermostat and fittings in, you can attach the hoses and run them from the engine up to where you'll be installing the heater unit. Be sure that all hoses are clear of any hot surfaces and moving parts and they have enough clearance to prevent kinking. Use some of the provided zip ties to keep them in place.

Heater Unit Installation
The next step is to mark your heater unit location and mount it. As mentioned before, you'll want to mount it to a solid surface on the back wall or the floor down by the driver's feet. You'll also want to make sure there is adequate air circulation and room for all the hoses, tubes and

Mounting brackets installed with extra screws (click to enlarge)

wiring. Wherever you decide to mount it, make sure you know what you're drilling into before you do so. The last thing you need is for the mounting screws to pop out through your bow cushions or damage another boat component.

The heater unit comes with mounting brackets that allow mounting to a flat surface with the four screws provided. Because of the large size of the unit I installed, I drilled an extra hole and ran an extra screw on each mounting plate.

Heater unit mounted on back wall (click to enlarge)

The only possible mounting option for me was on the back wall with the vents facing down. Mounting on the floor requires the vents to be facing out. Since I wanted to hide the unit behind the footboard, mounting it on the floor would have run the vents directly into the back of the footboard, which wouldn't allow room for the attachment of the heater vent tubes.

Although the footboard was previously installed with screws into both the floor and the back wall, this was no longer possible with the heater stuffed back there. Therefore, my finished installation has the footboard screwed to the floor at the bottom and resting on the heater unit at the top. Because it was all a very tight fit, the footboard remains solid.

If your boat has a freshwater closed cooling system, be sure to mount the heater unit below the level of the radiator cap in order to prevent air from getting locked into the heater unit and causing problems.

Connect the heater hoses from the engine to the heater unit. It doesn't matter which hose goes where, but make sure the hoses go directly into the unit and are not pulling on or stressing the unit at all. The heater unit is very sensitive and will spring leaks after extended use if the heater hoses are stressing it.

Vent Installation

Pull-out heater tube 4-inch hole (click to enlarge)

Finding places for three heater vents was the hardest part for me. At this point, I was thinking that the 2-vent model would have been a good idea. I knew that I wanted one to blow on the driver's feet and legs, so I decided to cut a 3-inch hole in the footboard and use one of the Euro vents to accomplish this. I put it between where I thought my feet would normally rest on the footboard. That was easy.

I also knew that I wanted to use the pull-out heater tube for the passenger sitting next to the driver. These pull-out heater tubes are usually mounted on the wall of the walk-through area on the driver's side. Although I had my stereo amplifier mounted on the inside of that wall under the dash, I was able to find just enough room to cut the 4-inch hole needed to slide in the pull-out heater tube unit. Two screws keep it tight to the surface.

Pull-out heater tube under dash view (click to enlarge)

Keep in mind that the install of these pull-out heater tubes leaves very little room for error. You need to cut a precise four-inch hole in both the fiberglass and whatever may be on top of the fiberglass surface. In my case, this was padded vinyl. There is only about an eighth of an inch of plastic all around that will go flush against the surface when mounted. Therefore, if the hole is cut more than 4 1/4 inches in diameter, part of that hole is going to show. It's not a great design on the manufacturer's part since they could have easily provided a bit more overlap surface area.

Finished pull-out heater tube (click to enlarge)

If you do have vinyl on the surface through which you're cutting, I recommend removing it while the hole is cut through the wall. Once you have the hole in the wall ready to go, put the vinyl back on and cut a smaller diameter hole in the vinyl. Allow the extra vinyl to be pushed into the hole as you're installing the pull-out heater tube. The result is that the vinyl will be sandwiched between the pull-out heater tube and the cut in the wall. This will both ensure a snug fit and a clean installation.

So now I had one vent left and I wasn't sure what to do with it. Although another pull-out heater tube vent would have been nice sitting next to the one I had just installed, I couldn't pull that off because my amplifier was mounted on the inside of the wall and I didn't want to find a new home for it. I also felt that it might be nice to hide the third vent somewhere since it will probably be seldom used. The solution I came up with is a bit Mickey Moused and you probably don't want to try it, but I'll let you know what I did anyway.

Pull-out heater tubes. One is installed on the walk-through side wall and the other in the under-dash footboard (click to enlarge)

I wanted another heater tube that would be able to reach across to the other side of the boat in case I have a second passenger that needs it. The kit came with plenty of tubing to make that reach. I wanted to have another vent that behaved like the pull-out heater tube, but I wanted to mount it in the floorboard next to the first vent I installed. Since the pull-out heater tubes are about 12 inches long, there wasn't going to be enough room behind the footboard. Not only that, but I wanted it to have a Euro vent on the end of it so that I could shut it off when it's not being used. The pull-out heater tubes only have always-open vents on them. Here's what I did to solve my problems.

One makeshift pull-out heater tube and one installed Euro vent (click to enlarge)

I cut another hole in the footboard off to the side and out of the way. The hole was about 3 1/2 inches in diameter, slightly larger than the 3-inch hole that I cut for the other footboard vent. I needed the hole to be extra wide so that I could pull the Euro vent out with the heater tube attached. This unorthodox configuration has me storing all the extra heater tube behind the footboard, only to be pulled out when needed. The Euro vent on the end allows me to close the vent when it's not in use. It sort of ended up as a poor man's pull-out heater tube with a Euro vent on the end. The drawbacks are that it's not as easy to stuff the tubing back in and, since the Euro vents are usually held in place with screws, I had to come up with a little Velcro scheme to keep it in place on the footboard between uses.

Once you've got all your vents installed, attach appropriate lengths of heater tubing between the vents and the heater unit. Use zip ties to hold the tubing tight at each end.

Wiring

Heater switch in 1 1/8-inch hole (click to enlarge)

The final step is getting power to your heater with the installation of the provided switch or the use of an available accessory switch on your dash. If you don't have an available dash switch, the toughest part will be deciding where to install the heater switch. I had no available switches and, even if I did, none of them are four-position switches as required by the 3H heater model.

I drilled a 1 1/8-inch hole to accommodate the switch. I put it to the right of the dash

Installed heater switch (please disregard damaged dash) (click to enlarge)

just in front of the throttle being sure to check that the throttle didn't hit it when in use. Although I was a bit worried about it not matching my dash, it ended up looking pretty nice. It would have looked much nicer if I didn't get too close to my dash with the drill and take the vinyl off of it. Kids, don't try this at home!

Once the switch was mounted, I simply followed the wiring diagram provided in the manual (that thing I told you not to throw out) and I was up and running. Their drawing of the switch doesn't help you figure out which wire goes to which terminal, so you'll have to do some trial and error connections to get it figured out. Don't forget to install the specified fuse inline in order to prevent damage to your heater should something short out on you. Use more zip ties to get the wires up and out of the way to finish off your oh-so-clean installation.

All that's left is to clean up that incredible mess you made and to take your new heater out on the water and give it a test run. Be sure you bring some tools with you in case you forgot to tighten something and you need to make some on-water adjustments. Be sure to check all connections for leaks.

If you have a flush system set up to run water through your engine without taking it to the local watering hole, you can use that to test it. However, it may not allow the engine to get up to normal operating temperatures and will usually result in the heater running cooler than it would out on the water.

Now that you have a heater on your boat, you no longer have an excuse for not wakeboarding year round. So get that wetsuit or drysuit on, get out on the water, break the ice if necessary and enjoy a winter run.

WakeWorld would like to thank Fluid Concepts for their assistance and incredible patience throughout this install project. If you're looking to
get your hands on one of these heater units, give them a call and
order up one of the three models they carry. You can also pick up
other accessories you might need to get your heater installed
just right. We'd also like to thank Heatercraft for kicking down
our heater unit and making this article possible.

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