Water leaking at heater exhaust

[aemartin]

Hey everyone. I’ve been having water leaking/seeping through the heater exhaust port the past couple of months when it rains. I don’t notice it when the boat is on the water and it rains. Seems to be when it’s parked in my driveway. I park it with the stern oriented up the driveway, slight angle but enough that water pools against the cabin when the canvas canopy isn’t up.

A few weeks ago I took the exhaust grommet out, dried the components and the fiberglass the best I could, then put it back together with a lot of silicone sealant.

Was bummed to see it slowly dripping in again last week with a small pool of water forming.

Any ideas of what is going on? How can I fix this. Should I replace the whole exhaust pipe components (ceramic spacer, etc) or could the water be coming from somewhere else and finding its way out there.

Thanks for any ideas. I hate to put the boat away for the winter without fixing, temporarily or permanently, this problem. The boat is a 2004 Tomcat.

Aaron

[thataway]

For storage I would suggest incline toward stern (stern down), if not you are having bilge water pool up forward. (Ice).

What Silicone did you use? Usually a high temp silicone is advised for these gaskets. Did you put the flange on, medium tight, and then tighten after the silicone set up? That would be the "usual" procedure with this type of seal.

[Molly Brown]

Aaron....

Never liked the factory install orientation of mine so when I redid the interior I took mine apart. I had a cork insulator between the fitting and the hull. I coated both sides of the cork with high temp gasket maker. Hasn't leaked. I would avoid silicone anything on the boat as a general rule. If your inclined to redo it, I would find a piece of cork you can cut to size, coat both sides and reinstall. The cork doesn't have to be very thick, just enough so the metal flange doesn't come in direct contact with the fiberglass. I suppose you could do it with the ceramic spacer too.

James