2018 Seadoo GTX 230 timing chain / cylinder damage

[gstew68]

Hey guys! I have a 2018 seadoo gtx 230 that had a timing chain fail this past summer. I’m the third owner. I believe the first owner rarely used it. The second owner is a reseller and it only had 16 hours when we purchased 2 years ago. I removed the engine recently to assess damage and planned to replace the chain / valves / anything showing signs of damage or wear while I was in there, but I did not expect to see these horizontal bands in cylinders 1 and 3. The ski just now has a little over 30 hours and those bands are deep enough to catch a finger nail. Any thoughts on the cause / recommendations on a fix? Can you have a machine shop bore or re sleeve a 1503?

 

[ski-d00]

Your plasma plating is coming off which they started in 2016. It will get worse until it self destructs. I'd have it bored out and sleeved or bored and replated now before you completely ruin it. There's plenty of info on this if you search. RIVA has sleeves but many times you end up spending more than just replacing the block. I do think the newer ones are better than the older ones.

 

[gstew68]

Your plasma plating is coming off which they started in 2016. It will get worse until it self destructs. I'd have it bored out and sleeved or bored and replated now before you completely ruin it. There's plenty of info on this if you search. RIVA has sleeves but many times you end up spending more than just replacing the block. I do think the newer ones are better than the older ones.

I had read about the Nikasil coatings, but was under the impression that was only used on the 1630. That’s good to know. I guess I’ll be looking into the sleeve / new block route. Thanks!

 

[ski-d00]

It's actually not Nikasil like Ski-Doo has used for many years but is a plasma sprayed coating. All of the Sea-Doo motors use this process now. Has a lot of advantages many of them so BRP can produce them faster at a lower cost and works well, until it doesn't which is where you are now unfortunately. A high end machine shop can bore the old coating off and respray the plasma coating to the proper thickness.