Please help! Challenger 2000 '01 piston problem. PICTURES

[2001 challenger 2000]

Two weeks ago I took my boat out into the water. A few minutes into being on the water the boat lost all power and shut off. When I got it home, first thing I performed was a Compression Check. Cylinder 3 showed 0 (ZERO) compression.

I took off the cylinder cover and this is what I was looking at. Some pretty intensive pictures:

I believe the previous owner was not very good at maintaining the boat and some particle chipped off and damaged the piston/cylinder and cylinder cover. Hopefully thats it!

Now I am planning to swap out the piston and just wanted to get a little advice/help with the situation as to how I should go about swapping it out..

My original plan was to pull the motor and dissassemble it in my garage to replace the piston. At the same time that also causes some difficulty as to HOW to remove the motor from such a high position. A regular automotive engine lift will not reach that high. That being said is there a more simplistic way to do this while the motor is still in the boat?

Thanks in advance for all the help and assistance. I welcome all comments and suggestions.

-Alex

 

[kustomkarl]

That engine has a serious problem...You need to get a come along supported in the ceiling of your garage and yank the engine out. There isn't anything more you can do with the engine in the boat. It looks like a bit more than just replacing the piston. Those chips as such are pieces of metal banging around in the cylinder. That engine needs to be disassembled and check the crank for damage as well. If the cylinder is scored real bad as it seems, it will need to have all 3 cylinders bored and new pistons. You first need to figure out what caused the problem...no oil? Water ingestion? Over heat condition could have done that too...If the piston came apart it could have wiped out the crank bearings and bottom end in the process. After you pull it apart it might end up being cheaper to just install a re-condition engine for a lot less money and aggravation. It looks like a good winter project. We have authentic seadoo manuals in the "Premium Section" that might be a big help in disassembling it. It is like $10.95 for a month for the library of manuals that you can down load or read on line as a PDF file. Or go to the seadoo dealer for like $85.00. Either way you really will need a manual to do it right. Now that's got a Mercury engine it. We have a moderator that's got great Knowledge on the Mercury engine. "Rookie101" send him a pm and request him to give you some advise on where to get Mercury parts... I'm not a Big Mercury guy...I'm more Rotax 4-tec.

Karl

 

[2001 challenger 2000]

I believe the crank fine because if the crank had serious damagage the balancing on the crank would be off and the motor would be torn apart. The pictures of the cylinder walls seem much more horrible then it really is. I believe the need for milling is very very slight and OEM size piston could still be used without having to swap all three for overboard pistons.

Now my concern is getting the engine out.. I dont believe I have a garage tall enough where I can mount something on the ceiling and still have enough room to pull the engine. Any other thoughts of how to pull it out? A automotive engine hoist wont work correct?

Thanks,

-Alex

EDIT:

What is your oppinion on the engine rebuild kit (Power head gasket set) ? Worth the money or will the current gaskets work fine with a little bit of Gasket maker silicone?

 

[scooper77515]

Listen to Karl on this one. The boat I bought from him did this to me about the 6th trip out.

It was NOT repairable.

See thread http://www.seadooforum.com/showthread.php?t=10114

and http://www.seadooforum.com/showthread.php?t=9188

There was metal throughout the engine, and I ended up sending parts of it out to SBT so they could rebuild it or recycle whatever parts they could, netting me about a hundred bucks toward my new engine.

It may be rebuildable, but it is not something most of us can do in the garage.

Just scrap it for whatever you can get for it, and start shopping for a new engine, rebuilt or NOS (I was lucky enough to find a NOS engine on eBay).

 

[rookie101]

I hate to be one more nail in the coffin, but that engine has to come out and be torn apart. There will be metal filings everywhere! You may get away with just replacing one piston, but I would highly recommend that you buy a complete engine overhaul kit, comprising all pistons, gaskets, seals, and bearings.

Unfortunately one new piston may put an uneven load on the crank and you could end up in the same situation within your first couple of outings. I've seen rebuild kits on Ebay for between 800-1000 and you can pick up a rebuilt power head from places like Crowley Marine for around 3000. Before you go too far though, try and determine what caused the problem. Like Karl mentioned it could be a lean condition, overheat, or foreign material that managed to get in the intake.

Sorry I couldn't give you a quick fix, but you're better off to fix it right the first time.

Aaron:cheers:

 

[rexsteiner]

looks like a big time lean out to me. see the dibbit in the piston where the spark plug burned a hole. let me guess, the part of the piston thats missing is the exhaust side? if you just fix that cylinder you probably wont fix you lean condition and it will happen again.

 

[rexsteiner]

another thing is if you do find the lean out without complete rebuild and some of the aluminum did happen to end up in the lower end, it will get in the crank bearings and make an aluminum ring inside them. it ends up creating more friction on the bearings and you end up with premature bearing failure