tasman
New Member
I know it sounds more simple than it probably is, but this thing is driving me crazy. Ran a little rough when I first bought it a few months ago, but no problem starting right up every time, even without choke mostly. Had the SeaDoo stealer tell me there was water in the engine when he dewinterized it which is funny because they are the ones who winterized it last fall, but regardless it seemed ok when I got it in the water the first few times and I was getting 55mph out of her at about 7000rpms. Oil got low, so I added 2 stroke oil I found in a marina when I was gassing up that said on the side that it was fully synthetic 2 stroke oil suitable for auto injecting Sea Doo engines. My existing oil was only 3/4 depleted so adding this new oil potentially created a whole new situation in my oil tank. About 45min to an hour of engine running later the revs were ridiculously limited and I barely was able to sputter back to shore with smoke coming out of my exhaust (though not very dense smoke, just like you'd see if it was running very rich). The situation got better, then worse, then better, back and forth for a couple of days, then just stayed in the dump where it is now. I am currently halfway down on my oil tank and can only get up to 5700rpms or so topping out at about 40mph. WTH??
I took it to some terrible mechanics who rebuilt the carbs but this did not fix the issue. I took the boat back from them after 2 weeks of "looking for an air leak" and nothing. Is it possible that the oil could be the issue and a flush of the system is needed? or is my adding oil and subsequent drop in performance unrelated? I did check the entire system for water leaks, cleaned the RAVEs, disassembled entire exhaust system and inspected for blockages etc, cleaned air regulator on the muffler housing, replaced exhaust manifold gaskets (after reading about water leaks), checked fuel filter and fuel lines, all seem to be ok. I don't have alot of the testing equipment you seasoned folks do but I can tell you the compression was tested pre-carb rebuild and it was 120-130 as I recall which sounds pretty good. I did test the engine under several conditions as well - I tried running with gas cap vented, air intake off the carbs (so I could watch for water leaks) and with the exhaust removed, none of these made any difference, it still would not start and idle, and would not start without full choke.
This is not the DI model so I'm not sure if voltage or air compressors are a big issue - again, it would have to be pure coincidence wouldnt it? This motor has about 100 hours on it I think. The raves were really nasty with sludge so I would guess a rebuild is in my future but again, this thing was running pretty well just a few engine hours ago.
Any ideas? Thanks from a first time boat owner
I took it to some terrible mechanics who rebuilt the carbs but this did not fix the issue. I took the boat back from them after 2 weeks of "looking for an air leak" and nothing. Is it possible that the oil could be the issue and a flush of the system is needed? or is my adding oil and subsequent drop in performance unrelated? I did check the entire system for water leaks, cleaned the RAVEs, disassembled entire exhaust system and inspected for blockages etc, cleaned air regulator on the muffler housing, replaced exhaust manifold gaskets (after reading about water leaks), checked fuel filter and fuel lines, all seem to be ok. I don't have alot of the testing equipment you seasoned folks do but I can tell you the compression was tested pre-carb rebuild and it was 120-130 as I recall which sounds pretty good. I did test the engine under several conditions as well - I tried running with gas cap vented, air intake off the carbs (so I could watch for water leaks) and with the exhaust removed, none of these made any difference, it still would not start and idle, and would not start without full choke.
This is not the DI model so I'm not sure if voltage or air compressors are a big issue - again, it would have to be pure coincidence wouldnt it? This motor has about 100 hours on it I think. The raves were really nasty with sludge so I would guess a rebuild is in my future but again, this thing was running pretty well just a few engine hours ago.
Any ideas? Thanks from a first time boat owner