Pre-Season tune up

[Cest la vie]

Howdy!
I bought my 2001 Sea Doo Utopia 185 toward the end of last summer, and used it only a few times. Very impressed, and ran like a champ!

I want to start this season off fresh, and was wondering about what I would need to do for a pre-season tune up.

I know the large tank is for oil. I am assuming it is for 2-stroke. I will fill that up, but what is the recommended oil to use?
That is the smaller tank for? It is located on the fwd top part of the engine.

I should change the plugs, also. What size/type of plugs are best?

What else needs to be done? I want to treat it as though the PO didn't do anything to it before I bought it. Any other oil to change or filters to replace or anything?

I had it out in the driveway yesterday and charged the battery and it started right up and idled with no problems.

Thanks!

Also- I know there is a search feature, but for some reason it isn't working. It is filled with Facebook ads and things like that where I am supposed to type in what I am searching for. Besides- it might turn out to be topical for others.

 

[biffdotorg]

Oil choices are plenty, and you will get plenty of opinions. Many will run what Mercury Recommends.

If you have the Merc 240efi, then use Mercury Premium Plus TC-W3 oil. If you have the 250 Opitmax, then use Mercury OptiMax DFI 2-Cycle oil.

I would say they are the big silver bottles, but I think Mercury just changed the color to black this season.

I would say I am the worst at giving plug advice as we all joked on here when I changed the plugs on my 240efi to find that they had paint around the base that indicated they may have been the same plugs from the factory!!

Two strokes could use fresh plugs each season after the stabilizer has been flushed out of the fuel and you know you are running fresh gas. It's easy to do, and not overly expensive. That being said, I swapped mine when I started to hear it missing at high RPM's. Pull the model off the plugs installed and cross reference them to the ones that Mercury recommends. Gap the new plugs and put them in. Very easy.

NGK BPZ8HS10


Good luck with that!

 

[Cest la vie]

Thanks! I have the carburated engine.
What goes in that tank at the top of the engine? It is full, but I don't know what is in it.

 

[Dr Honda]

That is the oil tank for the engine. It's should be totally full. (no air space) As the engine runs, it puts pressure in the main oil tank... and that pushes it up into the header tank. From there... gravity feeds it to the pump.