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Wet Exhaust

Andreasphillips

New Member
I made a rookie mistake and forgot the water hose on while getting my 2013 RXT 260 ready for summer. I started it and it started making rough noises and I immediately turned it off.

What should I do to clear any water inside?
 
The procedure is outlined in a the service manual for your particular ski under “water flooded engine”. The first warning is never try to start or crank a water flooded engine. You can find a pdf version of your manual on eBay. Or take it to a dealer. And don’t let it sit for a week. That’s the second warning.
 
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That would be the operators manual, the shop manual is what you need available on EBay for download immediately. The procedure is like 3 pages long and I don’t have the 2013 shop manual. The first steps would be to to drain both the exhaust and intake systems of water. If you are going to DIY you need the shop manual.
 
I will add that I nearly sunk my 2007 GTI SE 155 in 2001. I frantically called around for a shop to help me and nobody could or would. But one experienced shop told me how to effectively remove water from the air box, throttle body, and intake manifold using a powerful wet/dry shop vacuum, without taking everything apart like the shop manual directs. As a nearly 40 year automotive service professional, I don’t disregard shop manuals and manufacturer instruction. But there are sometimes more than one way to accomplish something. Let’s just say that I resurrected that ski using the advice I was given and still ride it - just rode it a couple hours last Saturday and it has 350 hours on it now.

If interested, I put a pretty clear description of what I did in this forum in Feb/March 2001 if you want to try it and you are a little mechanically inclined.
 
Try going to search in the upper right of the screen, and search on posts from milehighguy303. It was from March 2021. If you can’t find it, or have questions, I will relay it again for you and others.

The quick direction is to pull all three spark plugs, and use a powerful wet/dry shop vacuum to make a good seal on top of the spark plug hole, mimicking engine operation of pulling air from the air box, thru the throttle body, thru the intake manifold, and into the cylinders. Works even better if you have the rubber nozzle attachment with three different diameters, so you can get down into the valve cover instead of just on top of the cover, but use what you got. Get a partner to fully depress the throttle so that the fuel injectors don’t fire, and have them turn the engine over as if starting the engine. You move the vacuum over each of the three spark plug holes multiple times, sucking probably for 20 seconds at a time on each hole. Let the starter rest a few minutes and suck over each hole again while turning over the engine. You can stop when you aren’t coughing up water anymore. I hope you find it as helpful and successful as I did. You have additional work to do with changing the oil and filter, putting your spark plugs back in and safely starting the engine. Let it idle for a few seconds and accelerate slowly to a full throttle, not running the ski for more than a minute. Then you need to do the boil out procedure to get any water out of the crankcase, and change oil again. Change your spark plugs too, for good measure. It would be good to open your throttle body and spray some lubricant on the throttle valve assembly. I let my Seadoo sit with salt water in it for a couple weeks and damaged my fuel injectors, so I replaced those too. But I have ridden now for 100 hours since my water ingestion event in 2021 and have 350 hours total now.
 
Only thing I would add to that is I almost guarantee you have water trapped in your muffler and I don’t think the shop vac would remove that. Pretty simple to disassemble the exhaust and drain the muffler.
 
Only thing I would add to that is I almost guarantee you have water trapped in your muffler and I don’t think the shop vac would remove that. Pretty simple to disassemble the exhaust and drain the muffler.
I think you are probably right… but I would also expect that sucking with the wet/dry shop vac would suck up any water near and around the exhaust valves when the exhaust valves open. Water further away from the valves, further into the exhaust manifold and muffler will get blown out when the engine starts. So I was never really concerned with water in the exhaust. The guy who gave me this wet/dry vacuum idea has owned a reputable shop in Orlando for many years, and he has successfully used this method on many sunken skis of all makes and models.
 
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