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RESTO My 97 XP Mini Resto Project

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I just use the bench grinder with a brass wire wheel. At the same time I clean the threads out.
 
Welp...not really any good news tonight. I swear, I have the worst luck when buying these. So tonight i spent the better part of the night trying to remove that rave valve, and im pretty sure I invented some pretty new words in the process, but, its finally out. So yesterday I let it sit overnight and soaked it real good in some WD40 hoping the carbon would loosen up. I was putting alot of pressure on trying to pry it out, and trying not to F up the surface where the housing sits. After about an hour of trying to pry, scrape, tug, it came out, although it wasnt what I was expecting...I have no idea what happened, so look for yourself.
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I dont really know how it happened, but you can see at the end of the raves, they are like smashed up, and they were the reason that i couldnt get it out. The metal at the end was essentially too big to fit through the slot, and it took alot to get it out. I wont tell you that I sprayed brake cleaner down there in order to do what i thought was "decarboning" them. It was literally that bad, i was desperate at that point.

So now I went to put one of my spare raves down the hole to see if it was fine, and it gets almost all of the way down and gets to like a "sticking" point. It will go down, but not 100% smoothly, i think the old rave has messed up a little bit of the metal down the slot, so I will have to look into that. Also, does anyone know by looking at my original pictures of that piston how much i will need to trim the new rave valve???

The real crazy part about this is that absolutely no damage was done to the piston, i looked down the slot and didnt see any markings at all on it and no scores or nothing in the cylinder. I was surprised about that actually...
 
That is quite interesting. I think that you might have to replace that cylinder. I know when I had a valve crumble and fall in that the Rave area in the cylinder was all messed up.

Yup you got some kind of beginners luck...lol been babied all its life. I'd grind "baby" into that Rave and whip it through one of the guys house window.
 
Yeah, but i mean, honestly there is no way he or I probably would have know it was that bad. Even if it was running. He was a really nice guy (of course). I will sell the damn thing before i replace a cylinder or pull the engine lol
 
You really have nothing to loose if you try to put a new cylinder on it. I mean you have a $700 ski and trailer combo with a busted motor. The trailer is worth $400 easy so you have $300 in the ski. You could part it out and make money or buy a cylinder for less that $100 and try it. Even if it doesn't work it's now a $400 ski with a busted motor. You can still part it out and make money or sell it to someone for that money.
 
I think i may be able to fix the slot, i may just try and file it smooth. I think if i just stick a shop vac down the cylinder, i will collect any of the fine particles since the head is off right now, worth a try. Like i said, it isnt that bad, probably a min or two of filing and i think it will be usable
 
1.5 oversize pistons need the guillotines cut for sure. The RAVE housing is well past worn out as you can tell by how worn the underside of the blade is, it was rubbing on the under side of the exhaust port for the longest time. Those are two parts should be replaced during every rebuild. It probably had enough flop to eventually bind and snap would be my best assumption. What scares me is all the metal flake that you might have washed down with the WD and the brake cleaner. I know what it would look like if it were me right now, I just wish you lived closer.
 
1.5 oversize pistons need the guillotines cut for sure. The RAVE housing is well past worn out as you can tell by how worn the underside of the blade is, it was rubbing on the under side of the exhaust port for the longest time. Those are two parts should be replaced during every rebuild. It probably had enough flop to eventually bind and snap would be my best assumption. What scares me is all the metal flake that you might have washed down with the WD and the brake cleaner. I know what it would look like if it were me right now, I just wish you lived closer.

Yeah...i know. I am not afraid to rip it down, i have done it twice with my GSX. Its just, ugh, dont want to do it unless it is 100% mandatory. I had my shop vac pretty much sitting right next to me the whole time, and i was careful not to let any pieces drop down into the slides. Okay, so you say that it was 1.5 overbore? Holy god. Okay, so that means i need to trim back .75mm on the new rave, correct?
 
I dont know if they ever made 1.5mm over for 800s...?

Since the head is off put the piston all the way down, jam a bunch of rags in there and go to town. Wait...on the top rag put something on it...oil...what ever just to collect particles.

When you put it back together pour a little 2 cycle down that cyl to make sure shes over lubed.
 
Yeah, I think that is probably why I heard Sbt won't take it. I'm gunna go to harbor freight and grab a dial caliper and take a measurement
 
I dont know if they ever made 1.5mm over for 800s...?

Since the head is off put the piston all the way down, jam a bunch of rags in there and go to town. Wait...on the top rag put something on it...oil...what ever just to collect particles.

When you put it back together pour a little 2 cycle down that cyl to make sure shes over lubed.


Yep, right here: SBT has them here That is punching it out to the max! No more rebuilds after that, time for new jugs.

I was going to say if your going to file it put some bearing grease on the file to catch the shavings. We use grease on taps when were tapping into an assembly that is a PITA to tear down, also have seen guys do it on diesels when putting pyrometers in the exhaust manifolds.
 
I can see the 1.5 on the piston in your pic. Well, let me rephrase that, I can see the 1 5, so assuming it's a 1.5
 
Not sure, I have scraped it off before, with a straight blade then polished the crowns with scotch bright. But doing it in house I'd just scrape it off and be ultra careful and possibly cobble up a way to keep your shop vac up there running while your doing it.
 
Holy crap SBT runs those sleeves THIN. I thought they only did that on 951s! scary. Heat dissipation problems come into play with sleeves that thin.
 
So I thought I would move this over to a new thread, in order to show progress of what I am doing to my new to me 97 XP. I bought the ski on 1/28/13.

What I will be doing on the ski...

Starter replacement
Cleaning the inside of the hull
Servicing the raves
Replace grey fuel lines
Clean the carbs
Changing pump oil
Fixing/ investigating interesting JB weld, head repair job
Other general maintenance

Hopefully these are all the problems that will get the ski back in top notch form. The outside of the hull is in remarkably good condition for being 15 years old. The VTS works. MPEM gives me two beeps. The seat is in immaculate condition also. I will be removing a couple of "Hardline" decals the previous owner put on it for some reason, but I hope it is a short repair process to get it going. I will try and take pictures and videos as I go for others who are doing some of the same maintenance on their ski's, but dont have the "know how" on how to go about doing them. Here are some pics of what I'm starting with.

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I love the battery connector, that should pass any CG inspection.....NOT :) :)
 
Holy crap SBT runs those sleeves THIN. I thought they only did that on 951s! scary. Heat dissipation problems come into play with sleeves that thin.

Yep, personally I'd only ever go the first over with an OEM piston, but that's me. 1.5 over is a poor mans big bore kit, LOL. But when your dealt it you gotta run it.
 
ya, thats classic..

one thing that might help, if you connecting multiple things to the terminal, is one of these, not sure if this is the exact one, but you might get the idea from looking at it, i bought a 4 pack of these and used two of them on machines that had bad connections. got them at home depot for about $4 total. a lot easier than finding the right terminal connector, crimping it down, etc...

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Holy crap SBT runs those sleeves THIN. I thought they only did that on 951s! scary. Heat dissipation problems come into play with sleeves that thin.

i was going to say the exact same thing sort of,, meaning I didn't think anybody did 1.5 on a 787,,, but since well, maybe I was wrong, i bit my tongue,, but since you brought it up, actually i think i'm right.... SBT doesn't do 1.5.. maybe pmc does.. but not sbt... I believe they (SBT) re sleeve every cylinder, and bore to .5, which is why I give them my overbored cyl's when I do top end exchanges with them. if they are only .5 or stock, I can bore them locally, if they are at 1.0 and need re-bored, IMO they need re-sleeved, so they go into the "exchange" pile.

Yep, personally I'd only ever go the first over with an OEM piston, but that's me. 1.5 over is a poor mans big bore kit, LOL. But when your dealt it you gotta run it.

I'm thinking thats just a pmc thing, not sbt... there might be other differences, which may explain why sbt won't take them as core exchanges. (i'm going from a verbal statement from a friend, I don't know this for a fact, but i'm pretty confident i'm right)

I just want to make sure that if we're going to throw somebody under the bus, its PMC, not SBT.
 
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i was going to say the exact same thing sort of,, meaning I didn't think anybody did 1.5 on a 787,,, but since well, maybe I was wrong, i bit my tongue,, but since you brought it up, actually i think i'm right.... SBT doesn't do 1.5.. maybe pmc does.. but not sbt... I believe they (SBT) re sleeve every cylinder, and bore to .5, which is why I give them my overbored cyl's when I do top end exchanges with them. if they are only .5 or stock, I can bore them locally, if they are at 1.0 and need re-bored, IMO they need re-sleeved, so they go into the "exchange" pile.



I'm thinking thats just a pmc thing, not sbt... there might be other differences, which may explain why sbt won't take them as core exchanges.

I just want to make sure that if we're going to throw somebody under the bus, its PMC, not SBT.



Click the link please:

http://www.shopsbt.com/seadoo-jet-ski-pistons-rings/47-107.html
 
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