350 Mariner Fresh water leak

[amanphoto]

Have you physically felt all the water connections? It may not appear wet, but a supper fine stream of water may be spraying from the connection and hitting somewhere else. A friends Sea Ray has a very tiny leak on his hot water tank and it was hitting the transom.

I didn’t see it mentioned. You’ve checked all your sea stained lids and sea cocks?

Have you checked your fresh water tank for a leak?

[650Guy]

Thanks All, Sorry for the slow reply. I was out of town, but today I'm back at the boat and going to dig in some more.

So I'm going to start with turning off the shore water, then turn on the onboard pressure tank and wait for a pump cycle. I do lean towards the fresh water system as I will drain the entire fwd bilge and shut off the Shore water. When I return the next weekend, the bilge is still empty, yet once I arrive, and turn on the water... in time, it starts to fill again. Grrrrrrrr....

[650Guy]

Hey All;

So a weekend worth of work. Here is what I have:

[list=]* Water line from dock connection to main pump dry
* bay under the holding tank, and gray water tank from the toilet is dry
* drained the water from the fwd bilge - turned everything off for the night, returned next day (about 18 hours) things remain dry.
* Ac/Heat was turned on and the heat is operating as its cold here in Cleveland.
* water at the dock is turned off, water pump is turned on but about 1 hour into working.
* pump cycles about 1 time an hour. To me that does not seem completely unreasonable? does it? I mean I would anticipate SOME bleed down of the pressure by nature, wouldn't you?

So now I'm wondering, could my A/C unit be causing this? the connection at the through hull is dry, the sea cock and strainer are tight and dry? everything aft of the bulkhead by area 1 is dry as a popcorn fart...

I'm really confused!
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[bud37]

Howdy......the fresh water pump cycling would be the giveaway here Imo......once an hour, not normal....how long does it run before shutting off at pressure when this cycling occurs?. I have the same boat and there are water lines running up to the bridge that could leak into just the forward section.....get it dry and put some paper towels down on each side forward there to see what side its coming from.

Is your vacuflush raw water feed or fresh ?

[Midnightsun]

I agree, my water pump never cycles and never has in any of my boats.

[650Guy]

So my vacu-flush uses fresh water, not sea water. I should note, I can find and follow the line from the main feed to the vacuum-flush and it is dry.

I am now totally convinced that the fresh water supply is the culprit.

I have narrowed down the leak to the highlighted area... its directly under the V-birth bed. I'm just at a loss on how to change the line? access under the V-birth bed is extremely limited to no access at all. [image][/image]

[650Guy]

Quick update:

So here is my plan! I found the location of the leak, but its 1 of 2 lines, hot/cold. I'm leaning towards cold as I have taken the advise of a previous post and as the water accumulates in the bay, it seems to be cold, not warm/hot. To narrow it down more, I have purchased a SharkBite cap, and will terminate the water at the split from the vacu-flush toilet before it heads to the Abis of under the V-birth. If I cap the cold and it continues to fill, well then it is probably the hot... if I cap the hot and it continues to fill... ANYONE WANT TO BUY A 350 MARINER!?!?!?! hahaha! just kidding, I'll figure it out.

Once I narrow down which line it is, I have a coupler that I bough that fits inside the line. I will use it to connect the new line and feed from the main bay (in the galley outside the lav) through the hull and up to the faucet in the lav. I'm PRAYING they did not get fancy and add an elbow or something crazy like that in the area I have highlighted in the previous post. I'm really hoping that is just a bend in the flexible line as it is under the V-Birth and getting at that might be... no it IS an issue.

I will try and update with pictures as I go in case anyone else runs into this same issue... maybe my pain, is someone else gain!

[mjk1040]

Sounds like a good plan, can you see an of these lines through the access storage panels under the V-Berth? You may have to remove a screwed in panel to gain access. Hopefully the lines are PEX and they didn't use any elbows and just made sweep loops. Can you see the connection ends of these lines to make sure you don't have just a loose fitting? Good Luck man, you'll get it!

[650Guy]

I cannot find any access panel under the V-birth that gives access to the water lines. I have looked and looked, but found nothing? In an odd twist, my show now has almost no pressure? have not even started the project and now I wonder if the issue is between the sink and shower? Or could be a double issue, shower valve is going bad AND water leak?

Dang I hate water issues!!!

[bud37]

If you haven't yet, remove the shower wand from the connection and see what you get with just the hose. Same at the head sink, remove the screen from the faucet if there is one , sometimes they get quite clogged.