1MACGYVER
New Member
It all started about 4 months ago when my neighbour found an ad for a 3D in a disassembled state on a local trading website. I went down to have a look, it looked great except for the amateur engine disassembly as the previous owner had tried to replace engine mounts and a bent drive shaft and when putting the engine back in swapped the oil tank return and cooling water off the head and filled the lot with salt water.
Turned out to be a lot more damage than first thought and after a few lies from the previous owner, 2 mates and myself paid a bit too much for it. Plus i went though hell getting missing parts from him as well as buying parts on ebay or from the dealer but thats all in the past.
In the last year a Seadoo dealership opened up 5min from my house. Initially i thought i would get it rebuilt by a small workshop to save money or even send all the engine parts to the other side of the country to get built.
After talking to the head mechanic at Seadoo i was extremely impressed, he knew his stuff and seemed like the way to go. The next day we dropped off the engine to start the build and soon after the ski. Im so glad we went this way, it all got done properly, with a guarantee, and he saved us sooo much money on parts and labour.
On a positive note it already had the upgraded Solas prop which was one of the 1st things on the list to mod.
Some of the big dollars int he rebuild was thigs like a new crank, new rotary drive shaft and pretty much everything but the block, cylinders and head.
As the engine went back in.
When removing a brass fitting the aluminium plug in the exhaust was corroded and broke apart so we had it re welded. At the first water test another blew out so the pipe came out again and had all of the other plugs diground out and rewelded.
The next major issue was the aluminium plug that sits at the rear of the rotary shaft in the block corroded out and had a massive oil leak, the engine came back out and had a new compression plug machined and fitted.
Soon after we were in the water and started the run-in
The next to go wrong was the fuel gauge stopped working so ebay from the states i got a brand new one. This is the broken part. We did also put injector cleaner through a few tanks to fix the misfiring issue.
My biggest flaw is im a compulsive modifier. The first thing i wanted to change was the exhaust. initially i planned to do a rear exhaust and remove the resonators. after talking to a lot of people and reading a lot on forums i just removed the resonators and used a piece of stainless pipe and the standard rubber hoses (cut to suit) and the standard outlet.
All the removed parts
About this time the starter solenoid failed so a new one off ebay went in. The rectifier also went but instead of an OEM part i found one locally, chopped the plug off, soldered and sealed it with glue-heatshrink. With a custom stainless bracket it mounted on the factory location.
Next was fixing the leaning issue by relocating the battery and installing a tap to prevent water ingestion if towing. I made a bracket from aluminium and utilised the standard rubber strap from the resonator. It turned out cheeper to buy 400A jumper leads, chop link and lug them to extend the cables to the rear left corner than to buy 2m of black and red cable.
The spray off the nose especially in the wind was irritating so on went a splash guard.
As we already had the prop upgrade and id done the exhaust i really wanted to do the intake grate. I searched everywhere for info on what grate would fit without much luck, in the end i took a gamble and bought an R&D 97 XP grate which was perfect. (the 97 R&D is different to the 98-04XP by R&D???) I also flushed all of the bolt holes and seams with sika-flex. Well worth the money, makes a big difference- i highly recommend it.
We had noticed the standard matting was a little slippery as well as the 3D logo so i ordered HydroTurf again through ebay. After peeling off the old and cleaning it for hours (and many beers) we masked up, traced and trimmed to 3mm inside the finished turf line. We glued both surfaces and removed the tape, when tacky stuck it down. The end result is amazing, looks factory- better than i thought it would be.
We have spend so many hours and dollars fixing up the ski and trailer, licensing, cleaning etc but we have ended up with an immaculate ski and set up. Ive gone mad on ebay buying PFD's sand anchors, tow straps, and lately a 1080p HD helmet cam which is sensational (cable tied to an old skating helmet i had in the shed).
The end for now... until i think of something else to modify.
Turned out to be a lot more damage than first thought and after a few lies from the previous owner, 2 mates and myself paid a bit too much for it. Plus i went though hell getting missing parts from him as well as buying parts on ebay or from the dealer but thats all in the past.
In the last year a Seadoo dealership opened up 5min from my house. Initially i thought i would get it rebuilt by a small workshop to save money or even send all the engine parts to the other side of the country to get built.
After talking to the head mechanic at Seadoo i was extremely impressed, he knew his stuff and seemed like the way to go. The next day we dropped off the engine to start the build and soon after the ski. Im so glad we went this way, it all got done properly, with a guarantee, and he saved us sooo much money on parts and labour.
On a positive note it already had the upgraded Solas prop which was one of the 1st things on the list to mod.
Some of the big dollars int he rebuild was thigs like a new crank, new rotary drive shaft and pretty much everything but the block, cylinders and head.
As the engine went back in.
When removing a brass fitting the aluminium plug in the exhaust was corroded and broke apart so we had it re welded. At the first water test another blew out so the pipe came out again and had all of the other plugs diground out and rewelded.
The next major issue was the aluminium plug that sits at the rear of the rotary shaft in the block corroded out and had a massive oil leak, the engine came back out and had a new compression plug machined and fitted.
Soon after we were in the water and started the run-in
The next to go wrong was the fuel gauge stopped working so ebay from the states i got a brand new one. This is the broken part. We did also put injector cleaner through a few tanks to fix the misfiring issue.
My biggest flaw is im a compulsive modifier. The first thing i wanted to change was the exhaust. initially i planned to do a rear exhaust and remove the resonators. after talking to a lot of people and reading a lot on forums i just removed the resonators and used a piece of stainless pipe and the standard rubber hoses (cut to suit) and the standard outlet.
All the removed parts
About this time the starter solenoid failed so a new one off ebay went in. The rectifier also went but instead of an OEM part i found one locally, chopped the plug off, soldered and sealed it with glue-heatshrink. With a custom stainless bracket it mounted on the factory location.
Next was fixing the leaning issue by relocating the battery and installing a tap to prevent water ingestion if towing. I made a bracket from aluminium and utilised the standard rubber strap from the resonator. It turned out cheeper to buy 400A jumper leads, chop link and lug them to extend the cables to the rear left corner than to buy 2m of black and red cable.
The spray off the nose especially in the wind was irritating so on went a splash guard.
As we already had the prop upgrade and id done the exhaust i really wanted to do the intake grate. I searched everywhere for info on what grate would fit without much luck, in the end i took a gamble and bought an R&D 97 XP grate which was perfect. (the 97 R&D is different to the 98-04XP by R&D???) I also flushed all of the bolt holes and seams with sika-flex. Well worth the money, makes a big difference- i highly recommend it.
We had noticed the standard matting was a little slippery as well as the 3D logo so i ordered HydroTurf again through ebay. After peeling off the old and cleaning it for hours (and many beers) we masked up, traced and trimmed to 3mm inside the finished turf line. We glued both surfaces and removed the tape, when tacky stuck it down. The end result is amazing, looks factory- better than i thought it would be.
We have spend so many hours and dollars fixing up the ski and trailer, licensing, cleaning etc but we have ended up with an immaculate ski and set up. Ive gone mad on ebay buying PFD's sand anchors, tow straps, and lately a 1080p HD helmet cam which is sensational (cable tied to an old skating helmet i had in the shed).
The end for now... until i think of something else to modify.
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