In September I purchased a 2004 Seadoo Sportster 4-tec 215 Supercharger model. I did a little research before buying and found that they had issues with the ceramic slip discs on the supercharger. A few questions with along with my thoughts so far. I purchased mine with about 100 hours on it. Rip Tide Marine in Jacksonville serviced this boat since it was new and they verified that the supercharger was replaced last year. I currently have no issues, however, as an engineer I plan to service this thing myself as I do most everything.
1. Did Seadoo change the design of the superchargers or was this an oil issue? I read that the ceramic discs were slipping when used in fully synthetic oils. I read that disc slippage caused the the discs to shatter. I reviewed several service bulletins about this and to me it appears that BRP did not expect this interaction with the synthetic oils. As a result they later specified a synthetic blend to prevent the disc slippage. I then recently found a study completed by Amsoil that indicated they made a synthetic oil that reduced the slippage better than BRP's own oil. I am a firm believer that synthetic oils are superior and would extend engine life. To me it appears that BRP did not want to lose sales revenue on their own blends so they left Amsoil out of the recommended oils. (I can provide the referenced study for others to digest.) I am not an employee nor do I endorse Amsoil, just stating what I found. It appears to me that the root cause of the issue was slippage caused by oil compatibility as supercharger failures were intermittent. Rip Tide marine informed me that Seadoo changed the the disc material on a later upgrade and he told me that my new supercharger had the upgrade. I don't necessarily buy that. I am thinking that this was a design validation issue and Seadoo simply changed the oil specification to prevent it from rearing its ugly head. I would believe that they changed the friction disc material later on down the road. Does anyone know what the bottom line is on this? Was there a material change to the friction discs?
2. I am looking to get my season tune-up done in the garage this weekend. The recommended spark plug is an NGK part number DCPR8E. Why isn't an iridium plug recommended on these engines? It there a high performance plug that anyone recommends? Has anyone used or seen Brisk plugs before? With the high RPM and (suspected) high compression ratio I would expect a performance plug as the OEM specification. My model is old so perhaps they went to a better plug since then. NGK and Denso are both great manufacturers so I would buy on price all things equal, however, I would pay more if there is evidence that iridium plugs get better performance. Any recommendations/ thoughts on this?
Hope I didn't put too much opinion into this, but I understand how business works as well as the machine.
Thanks in advance.
1. Did Seadoo change the design of the superchargers or was this an oil issue? I read that the ceramic discs were slipping when used in fully synthetic oils. I read that disc slippage caused the the discs to shatter. I reviewed several service bulletins about this and to me it appears that BRP did not expect this interaction with the synthetic oils. As a result they later specified a synthetic blend to prevent the disc slippage. I then recently found a study completed by Amsoil that indicated they made a synthetic oil that reduced the slippage better than BRP's own oil. I am a firm believer that synthetic oils are superior and would extend engine life. To me it appears that BRP did not want to lose sales revenue on their own blends so they left Amsoil out of the recommended oils. (I can provide the referenced study for others to digest.) I am not an employee nor do I endorse Amsoil, just stating what I found. It appears to me that the root cause of the issue was slippage caused by oil compatibility as supercharger failures were intermittent. Rip Tide marine informed me that Seadoo changed the the disc material on a later upgrade and he told me that my new supercharger had the upgrade. I don't necessarily buy that. I am thinking that this was a design validation issue and Seadoo simply changed the oil specification to prevent it from rearing its ugly head. I would believe that they changed the friction disc material later on down the road. Does anyone know what the bottom line is on this? Was there a material change to the friction discs?
2. I am looking to get my season tune-up done in the garage this weekend. The recommended spark plug is an NGK part number DCPR8E. Why isn't an iridium plug recommended on these engines? It there a high performance plug that anyone recommends? Has anyone used or seen Brisk plugs before? With the high RPM and (suspected) high compression ratio I would expect a performance plug as the OEM specification. My model is old so perhaps they went to a better plug since then. NGK and Denso are both great manufacturers so I would buy on price all things equal, however, I would pay more if there is evidence that iridium plugs get better performance. Any recommendations/ thoughts on this?
Hope I didn't put too much opinion into this, but I understand how business works as well as the machine.
Thanks in advance.
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