engine locking up

[oldfooter]

A friend bought 2 96 spx's that had been stored for a couple of years. One ran fine the other was locked up. The problem was the bottom end was full of oil. Pulled engine drained oil and started up just fine. It sat in the shop for a couple of days and has done the same thing. What can cause oil to fill the bottom end? Any better way to drain beside pulling and turning over and draining out intake? Thanks

 

[kustomkarl]

It sounds like the rotary valve seals on the rotary chamber are seeping injector oil into the bottom of the engine. You could get lucky and re-torque the case bolts on the engine or you will need to replace the seals in the crank to keep it from seeping oil from the rotary shaft chamber into the crank case. That requires pulling the engine and replacing the crank seals ...or just replace the engine with a rebuilt one.

Karl

 

[rookie101]

Just to add my thoughts, for right now if the ski was mine I'd leave it as is until you get the chance to put some hours on it. The reason is you have a chance that the seal "may" come back, or at least slow down to the point that it is livable. Wait until spring and run the ski for a few days and see if it improves. If it doesn't, like Karl said you will either have to replace the crankshaft or the engine. If worst case scenario, I'd just drop a SBT rebuild in it, as it's not much more than replacing the crank on it's own.

Aaron:cheers:

 

[seadoosnipe]

Key word, .."stored"

A friend bought 2 96 spx's that had been stored for a couple of years. One ran fine the other was locked up. The problem was the bottom end was full of oil. Pulled engine drained oil and started up just fine. It sat in the shop for a couple of days and has done the same thing. What can cause oil to fill the bottom end? Any better way to drain beside pulling and turning over and draining out intake? Thanks

When you store these Rotax motors with the rotary chamber full, it's going to soften the seals and leak oil into your crankcase.

I bought a 97 GTX last year that had set up for 2 years and was in the same shape. Right away, I figured it needed to be run. When these seals go bad and you've been very active with the ski, time to change out the crankshaft, since you can't replace the seals without machine shop tools.

Get it where you can start and run it. Run it for 5 minutes or so. Be ready to take it to the water. Hopefully, the water isn't to long a drive and the seal isn't leaking so bad that it locks you up before you get there.

If you can get it to the water with the engine running, ride it like the devil. Watch it for smoking. It's going to smoke really bad for a few minutes but as you ride it, if the seal resets itself, the smoke will stop. The more you ride it, the better off you'll be in keeping your seal in shape.

Setting these skis up for any prolonged period of time like that is not good on them. If you have to do it, I suggest draining the oil from the chamber. Drain the tank, remove the bottom line, then remove the top line (vent) and use a shop vac to remove the oil from the chamber. Do not remove the line from your oil injector because when you fill it back up with oil, you will not have to bleed the injector lines..............:cheers: