Bottom end rebuild questions-657x

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I am currently removing my engine to replace a leaky MAG seal. I'm likely going to change the PTO seal. I want some pointers on how to inspect the crank center seals. I have oil in the bottom of the PTO (it shoots a lot of oil out the spark plug hole when turning over). Idk if it's the crank seals, or possibly a rotary valve seal or something in the injection pump. I'm trying to avoid replacing the crankshaft. I know the service manual has crankshaft measurements but nothing for crank seals.
 
I'll say it's almost a 99% guarantee it's the inner crank seals. The chances of a rotary shaft seal leaking in just about 0% someone on here recently posted about leaking inner crank seals on an old crank and put case sealant I think in the groves where the crank seals fit and I think........ THINK........ He said his crank didn't leak any more. If I can find the post I'll link it here.
 
Man if you are taking it down that far I'd consider replacing the crankshaft. Sealing the outside diameters is a shot in the dark unless it is a common issue and I don't see how it would be. Generally the lip is going to be the part to fail. I've been known to roll the dice myself though. Cranks are expensive. :) You can always install a valve on the oil feed line. I did that to my wife's ski and no issues except some smoke on start up. :) Good luck whatever you decide.
 
I rebuilt my 657x a couple years ago. My local shop ordered up a reman crank, not sure of the suppliers name, and my inner seals are starting to fail only three years in......

My friend who has his own shop could have gotten me an oem crank with good seals for the same price I paid for the one I used.

He mentioned how many times has ordered up gasket sets over the years and found the end seals barely grip the crank when you have to work an oem seal on.

The problem is these same, poor fitting, seals can get installed on reman cranks and you end up like me with a smoking monster after sitting for a week.

Can anyone chime in on a good crank supplier?
 
I've been doing some more research. I pulled my engine out recently because it had oil in the mag housing, and I also noticed that a large amount of oil comes out of the PTO cylender when it is cranked with the spark plug removed. The spark plugs look the same, so I don't think it's running lean or rich on one cylender. Problem was the plugs looked fouled after a small amount of use. Like probably 30 minutes of testing and 2 hours of riding. When I initially fired it up after doing fuel system repairs, it smoked my whole shop up. So I know there's oil sitting around in the crankcase(and that initial fire up might have fouled my spark plugs). It sat for 8 years before I got it. After a few minutes of running it stopped smoking excessively. And now after sitting for a week or so it has a slightly higher amount of smoke on startup, and then goes to what I think is normal after a few seconds. I'm wondering what the culprit could be, and why my mag seal has oil in it. I've heard the check valve on the oil pump going bad, and I've heard center crank seals. But my PTO cylender is the one that shoots oil, and my magneto housing is full of oil. My thought process would be if it's leaking from the mag it would leak from the RV chamber, sit in the cylender, and then leak out the outside seal. But theres not a noticeable amount coming out the mag cylinder when I crank the engine over. So it's likely a very slow leak if it's not noticable, and I wanted to know if there's any way to test to see what's the culprit and how fast it happens,, or if I should just reinstall the engine, run it for a while, and open the mag cover a few times to see how bad it leaks. I was wondering if pressure testing both the check valve banjo fitting and the rotary valve oil intake line to 3psi and leak testing them might give me a clue as to where the oil is coming from. I don't want to replace good OEM seals with aftermarket junk, and OEM parts for this thing is expensive. I espicially don't want to replace a possibly good crankshaft with a cheap reman from sbt, as I heard poor reviews of SBT, but I can't go spending excessive amounts of money on a new crankshaft. I want to see if it's only a slow leak that becomes a problem after 8 years or if it's an urgent leak. If it's something that's a super slow leak i'd likely just keep it(and possibly the seals will come back after some use. )
 
also if I just put my engine back in, should I clean the oil off of my stator coil? Is the oil likely frying my rectifier (I just replaced a faulty recitfier, and haven't ran it with the new rectifier). To clean my stator coil I'd need to get tools to remove the magneto. I don't have a holder.
 
I'll say it's almost a 99% guarantee it's the inner crank seals. The chances of a rotary shaft seal leaking in just about 0% someone on here recently posted about leaking inner crank seals on an old crank and put case sealant I think in the groves where the crank seals fit and I think........ THINK........ He said his crank didn't leak any more. If I can find the post I'll link it here.
Thanks. I posted an "update" after doing some more research going off this information and the other replies and reading some other forums. Since I have the engine out and I'm not trying to blow my bank account (yes, I'm aware skis are money pits, but I don't want it to be such a big money pit that I can't afford to maintain it), I'll likely do that and replace the outer seals, but if someone replies to my post about pressure testing the RV chamber, and it passes the test, I'll leave the seals alone. I'm still suspecious because one cylender has more oil in it than the other. So idk. I guess I'll keep poking around once I get back to where it is(I have it at someone else's house in another city- I can't store it at my place).
 
Man if you are taking it down that far I'd consider replacing the crankshaft. Sealing the outside diameters is a shot in the dark unless it is a common issue and I don't see how it would be. Generally the lip is going to be the part to fail. I've been known to roll the dice myself though. Cranks are expensive. :) You can always install a valve on the oil feed line. I did that to my wife's ski and no issues except some smoke on start up. :) Good luck whatever you decide.
I'll consider the valve. But I don't mind spending time having to take it apart twice if I absolutely need to if sealing the outer surface fails. I have time to fix my thing, but I don't really have the funds to go around purchasing these 250+ dollar parts all the time. Plus, I've heard that sbt makes a poor quality reman, so I think I may rather OEM seals with a little touch up than having to buy a new shaft. I'm currently under the impression that you can't reman a crank twice.
 
Hey man you are not too far from me. I'm near Slidell. I don't like replacing the crank because to me for the money for all the parts it isn't much more to get a rebuilt engine. If you could get them quickly I'd never do one. :D Good luck !!
 
Hey man you are not too far from me. I'm near Slidell. I don't like replacing the crank because to me for the money for all the parts it isn't much more to get a rebuilt engine. If you could get them quickly I'd never do one. :D Good luck !!
I'm messaging competitive crankshafts, and the owner said that I can get just the seals replaced from him. It's about the same price as an SBT whole crankshaft rebuild, but I don't trust SBT.
 
Hey man you are not too far from me. I'm near Slidell. I don't like replacing the crank because to me for the money for all the parts it isn't much more to get a rebuilt engine. If you could get them quickly I'd never do one. :D Good luck !!
Once I get my ski working, we should go ride.
 
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