97 XP piston seized. What to do? (pics)

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As Shane stated, it doesn't appear to be lubrication related. The small metal piece that we initially found on top of the piston, was actually part of the piston skirt. It appears as though water got in, and essentially shortened the rod, as you can see in the last picture. Its amazing that the rod didn't just break... either way, the shortening of the stroke in that cylinder caused the skirt to crash into the case and crankshaft assembly. All those pieces shattered down into the lower crankshaft area, and basically the motion of the crank caused the lower case to crack. Quick a catastrophic end to the bottom end of the engine. The good news.... the cylinders are still good, no scratches that could even catch a finger nail.

What is strange, the XP sucked water in at low speed a few weeks ago, we got it back to shore, pumped all of the water out, and got it running fine, no issues. A week later Shane took it out and it ran fine again. A week later, he took it out, and it wouldn't ever get up to full speed, really just felt like the motor wasn't getting fuel. We brought it back to shore, and surmised that it must be a fuel issue related to the grey hoses. Took it home, cleaned the carbs, swapped out the grey hoses, and Shane took it out the following weekend. It ran awesome for about an hour and a half worth of riding, and at the end is when the motor just stopped. It restarted once, but barely ran, so he shut it down and was towed to shore.... that was Labor Day weekend.

Any insight you might have would be great... has anyone seen a similar engine failure? Have you seen water cause this? Thanks for everyones help.
 
Yeah i would go with a new SBT block , call them and tell them you have a crack in the bottom of the case , they will let you know if you will pay any additional money because of it but i dont think they will , they will probably just weld it and move on.
 
I was leaning towards SES with a rebuild thinking the cost would be less. Going to call them and see what it might run.
 
Well... I was out with Shane that weekend. I never saw him submerge it or roll it. I'd be really concerned how water managed to get into the Cyl without doing those things. Just something to think about.
 
yeah SES would be cheaper, but you will have a new motor within a week of payment going with SBT , if you go SES usually they rebuild YOUR core instead, in which case, theres no way in heck i would want a welded core back. But thats just my personal preference
 
i'm pretty sure they'll charge extra for that crack in the case, but i've never given them cracked cases.
i'm guessing $100 extra up to $250 max.
 
i dont know , thats why i would call them, i believe they can remanufacture it and resell it , so definitly give them a call, they're real good guys over there. Ive had a few issues and they have been great about sorting them out.
 
SES does not answer their phone, so I guess they won't get my business. SBT guys were very helpful and said they would work with my case. I'm inclined to go that direction. Will keep you all updated.
 
http://www.fullboreonline.com/

No I had not seen them before. They are more expensive than SBT or SES, by quite a bit and do not mention if they will work with a cracked case. They seem to think SBT stuff is junk, which others on the forum here do not seem to agree with.

Anyone have bad experience with SBT parts, service?

I might give them a call to see what they say though, thanks!
 
SBT is a great company and i have absolutly no complaints about them.....fullbore is about 30 min from my house so i work alot with them and have always had good experiences....i will admit that they take longer to ship the engine back than sbt but they definetly do good work and they are running a special right now so give them a call
 
Yeah , ive heard good things about FullBore, but he says on his site that it has to be a Good core, and yours is definitely not. Plus, if SBT said they would take your old core, that means you get a new one, not welded, not even the same block , just straight up replaced in a week!
 
Indeed Schmidt, and Vdubn talked with them and said they were great. They said the likely cause was my crank bearing wore out due to rust from sitting for so long, and when it gave out.. it went to hell in an hand basket quick! Good news is everything else was likely fine the carbs, oil injection etc. It was just bout to happen with a engine that was not taken good care of. Now I know what can happen if you don't take care of it and you can bet I will take care of the one we rebuild.

SBT is the way we will likely go once I get some funds..
 
repair has begun

Ordered from SBT today. 3 day shipping will arrive Friday. Engine, Gaskets, rotary valve, rotary valve cover, timing kit, round trip shipping, looking at 1,200$. Hope its worth it :thumbsup:
 
here is info right off sbt website, they do charge for some welding, missing parts also -- but not too bad,
SBT's only additional charge for an engine is for broken aluminum on your core (Welding or Replacement). This normally occurs when an engine throws a rod through the case. The additional charge is dependent on the size and location of the crack or hole. The core should be inspected for such damage before it is shipped to SBT.

http://www.shopsbt.com/pdfs/welding.pdf

http://www.shopsbt.com/program.htm#newparts
 
Make a new thread with lost of photos of the engine and compression pre and post break in. I'm curious as to SBTs engines.

The XP is a great ski, I'm sure you'll love it.
 
Got my new motor very fast and replaced the rotary valve and the cover as well. They charged me 200$ for my case which was more than i was expecting but it was in pretty bad shape. Crack on case as well as bent rods and pistons were trashed.

Question for you all, will I need to buy/rent the Drive Shaft alignment tool? It is 150$ and I want to know how critical this is to the process?

Any tips are appreciated.
 
you'll want the tool. it will be worth its weight in gold on that ski (and it weighs a ton) because the motor is waaaay up front and the pump is way in the back and it has to be aligned everywhere in between. you're going to have to pull the pump and driveshaft and mid driveshaft so you can run the alignment tool all the way to the motor.

I ordered one of the tools from SBT last year when i replaced the rear support bearing. what they don't tell you is that due to the weight, the shipping will be pricey. it was $25 to my door in Houston, and would have been again if i'd sent it back to SBT for the $75 rental refund, costing me 125 bucks after i paid for shipping back. I ended up selling it to someone on here for like 125 shipped and they got a deal and I got a little more back for the tool.
 
homerson said:
... Question for you all, will I need to buy/rent the Drive Shaft alignment tool? It is 150$ and I want to know how critical this is to the process?

Any tips are appreciated.
Click to expand...

In a word "Yes".

I was a skeptic, so I recently decided to do a test. I put my rebuilt engine back in and eyeballed it so I thought it was in the exact same place, making sure the same shims were in the same places, then tightened it all down. Then I put the alignment tool in - it showed without a doubt that the engine was to the port side by at least 1/4" and was also a bit too low. Possible I could have got some of this ironed out using the actual shaft, but certainly not to the spec that was done with the tool. I am glad I decided to get the alignment tool.

I'm also told that with the higher HP engines (mine is a mere 587) and longer shafts, this alignment becomes even more critical.
 
This forum is a good place to find the tool to borrow or buy. Thanks Strizzo it is working great. I installed the same engine in my GTI by eyeball and shims and it was way off once I checked it with the tool. After about an hour and lots of shims I got it close but not perfect. All other skis I have done have been easy to get perfect so I am sure the GTI was off even at the factory. I consider it part of a rebuild now.
 
I have been reading through this thread and am starting to get nervous about the 97 XP I just bought. When I took the carbs off to rebuild (and they were nasty) I looked in the see what the piston arms looked like and this is what I saw...

2013-03-08_11-52-36.jpg

Sure looks rusty to me.

Here is the thread which documents my project. There are some pics of the dirty carbs.

http://www.seadooforum.com/showthread.php?59538-1997-Seadoo-XP-Project

I just bought the ski and am looking forward to this summer but do not want the engine to blow.

This is my first ski, but I am pretty confident about doing any work to it.

What should I do?
 
homerson said:
...It does not look "heavy" as you describe, and i currently do not have any shims I guess I should also order some of those in case they are needed?
Click to expand...

That engine is lookin' good!!

Re: the tool, it is not so much heavy as much as it is larger than the standard size for cheap shipping. I believe Strizzo's main point was to expect $25+ on shipping as well as the cost of the tool. Still worth it IMHO.

Yep, shims are likely to be needed too.
 
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