Cheap Engineer
Member
I have been following all the different repair threads going on and thought it was about time to add mine. I bought this 98 Challenger in October of last year. No water test, it was too cold at that time here in Michigan. Check the compression and everything looked great. Stored the boat for the winter and come spring sold my 96 Speedster and started working on this one. Fixed the fuel baffle with info from here, so far so good. Also properly bolted down the seats that were missing half of their fasteners. Started right up after being stored so it was time to take it out on the water. I decided to take the whole family out, now you can see where this is heading, hoping for the best but in the back of my mind knowing this wasn't a great idea.
We were out on Lake St. Clair the engines started but didn't want to stay running. Also the port side cavitated very badly. I was able to get the engines running ok and by feathering the throttles got up to around 40 everything was going ok. Now we stopped and both engines were having trouble making power plus the cavitation was getting worse so we limped back, about an hour, to the ramp and made it back home. This could have ended much worse.
Got it home and started tearing it to it. First it looks like the RAVE valves were never cleaned. Also it seems the previous owner sucked up a piece of a plastic tarp and that was causing the cavitation. Amazing that we even got up to 40 with all this stuff going on.
So the RAVE valves are cleaned and the engines sound great, on the trailer. Now I have the pumps all apart. One of the impellers looks ok, the other is chewed up, but should I replace both of them because they are apart? I'm putting new wear rings in both sides and there is a little gel coat work that needs to be done inside the port side intake. Anything else I should repair while it is apart? The carbon seals look good and they didn't leak while out on the water. One side has the driveshaft protector, the other doesn't. Should I leave the one in? I've never had a boat with RAVE valves. Would the loss of power and RPM's be cause by dirty valves?
Even with all these things the boat was fun while we were out on the lake and it can only get better.
We were out on Lake St. Clair the engines started but didn't want to stay running. Also the port side cavitated very badly. I was able to get the engines running ok and by feathering the throttles got up to around 40 everything was going ok. Now we stopped and both engines were having trouble making power plus the cavitation was getting worse so we limped back, about an hour, to the ramp and made it back home. This could have ended much worse.
Got it home and started tearing it to it. First it looks like the RAVE valves were never cleaned. Also it seems the previous owner sucked up a piece of a plastic tarp and that was causing the cavitation. Amazing that we even got up to 40 with all this stuff going on.
So the RAVE valves are cleaned and the engines sound great, on the trailer. Now I have the pumps all apart. One of the impellers looks ok, the other is chewed up, but should I replace both of them because they are apart? I'm putting new wear rings in both sides and there is a little gel coat work that needs to be done inside the port side intake. Anything else I should repair while it is apart? The carbon seals look good and they didn't leak while out on the water. One side has the driveshaft protector, the other doesn't. Should I leave the one in? I've never had a boat with RAVE valves. Would the loss of power and RPM's be cause by dirty valves?
Even with all these things the boat was fun while we were out on the lake and it can only get better.