How low can the oil tank get??

[rotaxrule1]

Hello all,

Stupid question I know, but how low can you run the injection oil before you risk running anything dry or lean? I was just in the threshold of the oil light coming on in my gsx (looked like it was a bit below half. And it bogged down and made nasty noise like it was about to seize. So I shut it down and towed it in.

I didn't know what oil it has so I was trying to run it down a bit before I clean it out and switch to xps. Perhaps a bad idea to run low, not sure until I pull it apart.

I did run a compression test, 155 on mag, 90 on pto. So something definitely went wrong.

Thanks for the help.:cheers:

 

[RFoster130]

If it is just below half, I dont think that is your problem.

 

[Dr Honda]

If it is just below half, I dont think that is your problem.

nope... not the prob.


I run mine down pretty low sometimes... especially on the boat. (it holds over 2 gallons)


BUT... 90 psi isn't good. Even with good oil, sometimes, engines just give up. BUT... since you don't know what's in the tank... I'm assuming that the ski is new to you. That could have been the reason for it's death. If the last owner was running TC-w3 oils... you should have checked it, and drained it before riding.

The moral of the story is... always know what oil you are using.

On my Polaris project, I drained out a gallon of unknown oil before I ran it the first time. Sure... I tossed out potently $40 worth of oil... but it's a lot cheaper than the price of a rebuild.

Sorry for your loss though.

 

[rotaxrule1]

Thanks for the response guys,

To answer DR Honda, yes I purchased them in april, so they are all still pretty new to me. I have flushed and changed the filter on my GTX to the good stuff. From what I could tell, it does look like he was running that TCW 3 garbage in the XP and GSX. He gave me 2 bottles of XPS and 2 of the TCW 3, not sure why he even messed with the other stuff. He also could have been mixing them. Who knows...

I should have followed the little voice in the background of my head saying to flush them out before even messing with them. lol all well. I just wanted to make sure it was not because I ran the tanks kinda low, I figured as long as I monitored to make sure the line to the filter was still fed and I could see the oil level, we should be good to go.

I will pull it apart this week probably. Rebuilding these things are totally new to me. I have rebuilt my yamaha banshee and 4 wheelers many times, so I have the basic concept down. But I understand that these engines are slightly more elaborate.

If the problem only appears to be in the jugs, I assume I can just take them off, have them bored and put new pistons in without having to pull the engine? And I read that if/when you bore these things, the RAVE slide has to be trimmed a bit to match. Does that sound correct?

Thanks again... you guys are great.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

Tcw

TCW was Tasty Coma Wife on the TV show scrubs

 

[rotaxrule1]

Pics of engine

I have attached pics of my engine. It looks like the bad cylinder's oil injector got plugged up as it appears that it was starved for oil.

Strangely enough, the cylinder wall does not appear to be scarred, feels smooth still. It will be interesting to see what the rings and side of piston look like when I take the jugs off. When I took it apart, I tried again to spin the engine by hand, it was stiff. Then I poured a little oil down the bad cylinder and it moves free as a bird. So I guess I can just bore the cylinders out, grab a top end rebuild kit and be back in business right?

Well, after fixing the alleged oil issue first of course. Which I need to flush the whole system anyway to get the nasty tcw out of there.

 

[dsw222]

a top end rebuild kit contains cylinders so you wouldnt need to bore yours if you got that

 

[Dr Honda]

Yup... if you do a top end... you should be fine, but once you get the pistons out, make sure there are no signs of bad crank bearings.

 

[rotaxrule1]

Will do, thanks dr Honda and everyone :cheers:

 

[buzzman]

have GS and book says it needs 3 lbs of pressure to help oil to pump my tank has aleak at seam and i think that is one problem of pressure loss and engine falure and the tc3 oil did not help

 

[93mustang97sea]

I had the light come on for me for the first time and man it is bright on my ski well plus it was 9:00pm and pitch black on the water and I was trying to get home as fast as possible without coast guard or bay constable noticing.

(had to go out with my buddy make sure he didnt get stuck out there while trying a new prop to get him boat to do 90mph)

 

[rotaxrule1]

Well my rebuild saga continues, I finally got to tearing my cylinders off. Surprisingly the piston and rings did not look too bad! The bad piston showed minor signs of heat and friction. Of course I am still boring it over a size and getting pistons, etc.

I did notice one other thing while looking the bottom end over. I was turning it slowly and saw light surface rust on the crank! It looks like the mag side had a tiny bit of water (just high enough to touch the bottom of the crank) I dont think it was high enough to get the rod bearing or crank bearings. But it definately concerns me..... Not sure how the water got in there.

I have XPS oil filled to the top of the crankcase openings to try and get it clean, the motor still spins very freely. I wonder if I can still get away with a top end kit assuming I get the oil out and everything still looks ok in there?

On the other hand, the machine is 13 years old and may need a bottom end anyway. Is there an easy test I can to to see if the bearings are ok without splitting the case?