4 Tec 155 Overheated Today

[jimraab]

Guys,

I was riding today about 1 mile off the beach where my trailer was and the engine light came on indicating I was overheating. Since no one was around I headed immediately back to where my trailer was. I ran the ski at about 45MPH for about 1 minute and shut the engine off. No smoke or any thing. Came back to my house and discovered that the coolant container was empty. Filled the container up with water, started the engine, and discovered a water hose clamp had corroded off. The engine at least on the trailer sounded fine while running. Two questions:

1.) Do you think that running the engine for 1 minute immediately after the engine over heating light went on could have done any damage?

2.) Are the stainless steel clamps that you can purchase at Lowes a good quality to use on the watercraft?

 

[trapperjack1]

any clamp will do just watch it
if it runs ok then your ok
if you hurt it you will no

 

[jimraab]

Dr. Honda, I would like to get your input on this if you can.

Thanks Doc!

 

[ski-d00]

I doubt you did any damage. The 4tecs start to run bad or not at all when they get hot and even then it's rare that any damage is done from overheating. You really have to cook it, which some morons do, but yours sounds fine.

I prefer the Tridon SS clamps but any ss will work. If you have one corroded clamp, I'm sure there are more.

 

[jimraab]

Should I be using heavy duty stainless clamps on the water hoses? If I am not mistaken the clamp that corroded and broke off was the same stainless clamp I purchased from Lowe's just a year ago.

 

[trapperjack1]

you must be in salt water!
thats wy i said watch them,
the factory crimp on clamps
look to be a much better clamp
if paying attenion to your ski
is not your bag

 

[jimraab]

trapperjack1, good point! I think I will order the crimp on clips from seadoo. They look like a better quality. One less thing to go wrong.

 

[devonte007]

I don't think you did any serious damage to the engine either. I would make sure to flush the entire cooling system and add a fresh mixture of coolant and water (50/50) before I take it out again. In your first post you mentioned that you filled the reservoir with "water" which could throw off the mixture ratio.

 

[jimraab]

I can use regular auto coolant and mix it 50/50 with water?

 

[thor7000]

The ECU's will shut the engine down if they get too hot so no worries on doing any damage. Also make sure you use distilled water when adding it to your cooling system and that you bleed it properly.....wouldn't want to head out and have it overheat when your further away from your trailer!!

 

[jimraab]

Will do! I read that you bleed the air out by taking out the allen screw at the back of the ride plate while filling the system with coolant.

 

[devonte007]

Yes on both accounts. The green auto coolant is what you use, you can buy the pre-mix stuff or the concentrate and dilute it yourself with distilled water.

As for bleeding the system out (best to get a buddy to help you), just pour in coolant in the reservoir until it pees out the bleed screw solid stream no air bubbles. Then have your buddy put the screw back in the heat exchanger while you keep the reservoir full. Now, there will still be some air in the system that won't come out until the engine heats up and the thermostat opens (just like a car engine). So first time out, get it up to operating temperature and check the reservoir again to top it off. After that, you should be good to go for a couple years!