What to check on new to me 2005 RXP

[OutkastBoss]

Hello we are going to go check out an 05 RXP and I was curious about what you guys would recommend checking out on it before picking it up.

This is it here Facebook Marketplace: Buy and Sell Items Locally or Shipped
He says it will run at about 75mph!

After a little reading around on here I am wondering if it is a 115 or 155hp and I was also wondering if it was a rxp or rxp-x potentially and he just wasn't aware.

My plan is to drive down there and do a compression check with a tester we pick up from the auto parts store.
From what I see they usually have 125-135psi and you don't want more than a 10% difference.

I figured I would start it up briefly to be sure it fires up as well. Is there any issue to doing this dry or would I need to hook it up to water?

I was also thinking since its like 50 here we could potentially take it on a test run before putting it away for the rest of the winter. (we would have already bought it at that point) If we do what do we need to do to winterize it again, just throttle it out to blow out the extra water and drain the tank?

Thanks for your input guys!!

 

[Ankeneyou]

That one says sold already. If stock, that ski is not doing 75 more lke 67-68.

That would be a 215 hp ski. Youll want to ensure the sodium filled valves have been replaced and that the super charger has been rebuilt recently.

 

[OutkastBoss]

I read the newer ones had different valves that were better, so you can swap out to the newer valves? He did say the supercharger had been serviced recently.

He marked it sold for us already at 3k (on his own we didn't ask). Was hoping to find the 255hp one but this still seems like a good deal. (with my admittedly limited knowledge). It is a long drive so if we do go take a look it would be with the intent to buy.

 

[ski-d00]

Buying one that originally had ceramic washers that they say the sc has recently been serviced is a huge red flag. What probably happened is that the ceramic washers in the sc broke. Then they rode it for who knows how long and realized it wasn't going as fast as it should be. They took it to some local pwc shop where they rebuilt the sc and said it was good to go or were told they should sell it because the left over pieces of the ceramic washers are still in the motor and will slowly ruin it. What they should have done is pulled the motor and got all the ceramic pieces out but the owner either didn't want to pay that much or the shop didn't know that is what needed to be done.

A much better way to buy one is where they said the sc was rebuilt say 40 hours ago and they have documentation to prove it. Or, buy one where it hasn't been rebuilt at all and check the sc when you inspect it which takes 2 minutes.

You should test ride it and it should hit 69-70 mph on the speedo with smooth water.

You can swap to newer valves but the failure rate for fresh water skis that were maintained properly really isn't that high.

 

[OutkastBoss]

Oh boy, we may have made a mistake on this one. After driving all the way out there we found out the compression tester didn't have a fitting that fit the tiny spark plug holes on these 4tecs. It fired right up and sounded good though so we took the risk and bought it.

We took it out for a test run yesterday because of unusually warm weather and could only get it up to like 48Mph. I did notice the impeller had some dings in it but wasn't sure if that would cause that much loss of speed. The motor sounded great, it revved smoothly up to like 8k and restarted easily after being warmed up.

There was a little bit of white smoke coming out of the back that didn't seem excessive. After reading here is likely just steam from cooling the exhaust ports. On a side not I couldn't really figure out exactly where it exhausts at out of the rear, not that it matters but I was expecting an obvious exhaust port.

A notice also came up on the dash that just said "Sensor". after messaging him it is supposedly a $5 coolant sensor that he ignored and it happens intermittently (happened every time I turned it on for me though). Looks like I need to figure out how to read the code for myself since it just says "sensor" on the cluster.

As far as the supercharger he had no documentation but said that some brass bushing(s) was what was replaced. Checking the supercharger only takes 2 mins? How do I do that or is there a good thread to point me to that explains it?

He did claim he would take it back if I wasn't happy with it but you know how that goes after the fact he likely wouldn't.

Hopefully I didn't just buy a lemon that needs a lot of work. I would usually do more research and learn more beforehand but this was a bit of a holiday spur of the moment thing.

 

[ski-d00]

Loosen the hose clamp on the inlet hose to the sc(right in the center of the sc) and slide off the hose. Reach inside and see if the sc impeller spins freely. If it does, that is bad. It should have just a little back and forth motion but not spin freely.

You can only run it like 10 seconds out of water. If you rev it out of water, you will get the exhaust sensor to trigger. This doesn't mean you need a new sensor. It means it is getting too hot and needs lake water to cool the exhaust.

If you press set 5 times, it will show the codes, press mode to scroll through codes until end. It will only show active codes and once you shut it off codes can go inactive.

 

[OutkastBoss]

Thanks for the help!

It didn't show any codes and now that you mention it I don't think the "Sensor" notice popped up when it was in the water. I was only starting it very briefly out of water but I did bump the throttle some at least once.
I bet it was like you said and just the exhaust getting hot because it was out of water. I thought it was weird it only said "sensor"

I noticed just now that we must not have fully seated the ignition coils after attempting to check the compression, so maybe one of the cylinders was getting no or poor spark. All 3 plugs looked the same though, almost perfect and new but with just a little carbon or whatever the light gray soot is from being fired.

Looking in the intake and in the rear output you can see minor dings in the impeller and that there is a small gap between the impeller and the wear ring. Are they supposed to touch or almost touch? I would say its somewhere between 1/8 and maybe up to a 3/16 gap.

I'll go check the supercharger now, just spinning the supercharger sounds like an easy way to test if its failed. Is there a way to visually inspect the washers? I will try and find a thread real quick that covers this too.

 

[Ankeneyou]

If you are getting those RPMs but poor acceleration and loss of top speed then that would point to the wear ring. The gap between impeller and wear ring should be about the width of a piece of paper and you should barely see any light coming through. Its a wear item and needs to be replaced.

 

[OutkastBoss]

Yeah it revs to 8k on takeoff and up to 7k afterwards. from what I am seeing it should rev up to 8 even after take off?

I still need to check out the supercharger but I think it's going to be the wear ring based off what you guys have said and what I have found searching on this forum and youtube.

I got adapters and was able to check compression, I got 140, 139, and 140 so I am pretty happy with that on a used motor I think. At least from what I read a new motor would be like 150 maybe and they are pretty close to each other.

 

[ski-d00]

If you are only seeing 7k rpms at full speed of 48mph then you have another problem other than the wear ring. You should see around 8100 rpms.

Compression if fine. Anything between 110-150 on sc motors will run fine. A leak down test is a better test for engine health on the 4tec motors.

Check your sc and also change your spark plugs. The 4tec motors run nearly perfectly on 2 cylinders but won't reach full speed with low rpms and they go through spark plugs frequently even though they will look perfect.

 

[OutkastBoss]

Oh boy, the supercharger spins freely, this might be taking a turn for the worse.

I thought I wanted the power but the supercharged models seems to lack longevity/reliability. Or am I blaming the ski for it being not properly maintained? I am on the fence now about whether to get the supercharger rebuilt and hope there isn't crap all in the motor or sell it off and find a different ski altogether.

Maybe for reliability reasons I should of got something like this, was worried it would feel too slow. I guess they run at like 55Mph. No supercharger issues and doesn't have the sodium valves since its an 07 I think.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2443914392353519/

 

[skiasylum]

I bought a used ski and the seller advertised as in new condition. I got it home and found the hood hinge was broken and they are $500 new for a new hood. Seller reimbursed me the money for the hood so there are some good people out there. You need to communicate with your seller, and ask him to take it back at this point. If the supercharger is spinning freely you most likely have metals parts in your motor.

 

[OutkastBoss]

I bought a used ski and the seller advertised as in new condition. I got it home and found the hood hinge was broken and they are $500 new for a new hood. Seller reimbursed me the money for the hood so there are some good people out there. You need to communicate with your seller, and ask him to take it back at this point. If the supercharger is spinning freely you most likely have metals parts in your motor.

Crap,
I did ask him if he would honor his offer of taking it back if I had an issue. He said he had already paid off a bank loan with it and "Maybe" he would be able to in a few weeks. Tbh I don't have much faith he will actually take it back. I did offer to let him keep $100 for his trouble when I asked about it as well.

He is a younger guy and seems genuinely surprised as far as I can tell. He was told the supercharger "had been serviced" and then in the two years hes had it he didn't run it much. Supposedly he never had an issue with it and it would go around 70 as recent as a few months ago. It did have a new looking sticker pass for a private lake dated for 2019 that I had thought was a good sign.

Unfortunately I might be stuck with trying to fix it or sell it for less to try and recoup some of the cost. Then maybe look again, armed with more knowledge of what I am looking at. You hate to learn the hard way but that may be the case this time. I am still uncertain if I am soured on the supercharged ones in general, though I may be.

 

[Mudnman]

First you need to see why sc is free spinning.

 

[ski-d00]

You own it now. Just fix it. Remove the sc and see what you have.

Removing the sc should take less than an hour even for your first time doing it. Removing the plastic seat support will help gain access to it. Loosen the 10mm exhaust clamp to disconnect the pipe from the exhaust manifold and the two small rubber hoses and slide the j-pipe and muffler assembly back about 4 inches. You'll need a closed end etorx wrench to remove the top bolt. The two bottom bolts you will need a etorx socket. Remove all 3 bolts and the inlet and outlet sc hoses, then rotate, twist, wiggle and pull straight back to remove it.

Then look at the gear(if it's still there) and see if you have one or two washers missing and what they look like. Post pics if you're not sure.

 

[OutkastBoss]

Ahh, I don't have any E-torx stuff, looks like It will be an E-8 size I will need to order. Thanks again for the help, I will get it pulled and inspected and post up my results.

In the mean time what is the bare minimum to do as far as preventing freeze damage since I did run it in the water to test it. I saw one video where they removed the water box and another where they hooked up to the hose flush port on the rear and blew 15psi of air though it. It looks like it will get below freezing again next week.

 

[Mudnman]

3ftDeep on ytube shows winterization.
heck they have a 4 part vid on tearing down a 4 tec due to SC washers breaking.

 

[OutkastBoss]

Yeah it looks like as far as water freezing and causing damage the only thing was blowing out the exhaust with the air. I didn't do that but have already removed the water box and dumped what water was in there. That is a great video and def. looks like the way to keep things nicely maintained yearly once we get this thing whipped into shape.

I watched that 4 part video and up to the part where they stopped finding metal in it I wasn't too intimidated. Then they took the top end and lower end of the motor apart and rebuilt the whole dang thing which does intimidate me some tbh.

Still haven't got the SC off to inspect it. The local parts store had the etorx socket but not the box wrench one. So I ordered a set of the sockets on Amazon and this for the box wrench.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M69W10H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1I hope it fits, there isn't much room there on that top bolt, in the video I watched of removal their E-8 wrench was made from a piece of plate so it was very low profile but I couldn't find anything like that.

 

[ski-d00]

Here's what your ic will look like if you don't put anti-freeze in it. Trying to blow it out won't work, water will settle back down at the lowest point in the small tubes and freeze, expand, split. Then it's replace time.


Here's what I use on the top sc bolt, grind the top of a ratcheting wrench and works perfectly and will be the easiest bolt to remove now.

 

[OutkastBoss]

That clearanced ratcheting one is a good idea, I am going to try and find one locally again today since the Amazon one hasn't shipped yet. *Edit I found a set of splined "universal" wrenches that advertised being capable of doing e-torx bolts and the 6mm fit perfectly! It would be super nice to have a ratcheting one, but This could be had today instead of waiting a week on shipping.

For the intercooler is that a pic of the external one? I think this one has the internal one, I will search around for the process to get anti freeze in it. Hopefully that can be done without putting all these hoses, the metal exhaust pipe (J-pipe?) and water box back in to the ski. I removed all of that to get at the supercharger better.

 

[ski-d00]

That is the exact ic that is in your ski and is the internal one in the intake manifold. If it were running, you can get anti-freeze in by pumping it in the flush port above the pump at the rear. The ic inlet goes directly from the pump to the ic and then to the exhaust manifold at the lower front.

You don't have remove the j-pipe or water box, just slide them back a few inches and you'll have plenty of room to remove the sc.

 

[Mudnman]

Intercooler on other side of motor of exhaust manifold.In side plentom.Remove the 2 hoses.
Get a 3 foot piece of 3/4 ID hose.Get an automotive Prestone radiator flush kit with 3/4 T fitting.Undo cap ,pore antifreeze in ,put cap on.

1 hose comes from bottom back side of exhaust manifold to the intercooler. I’d blow that out too.

The other hose goes to pump.That pulls lake water through ventury to intercooler to exhaust.

if your can is removed I can’t see what else needs don’t .
Make sure motor has antifreeze in and not just water.

i didn’t watch vid but those guys are good.
I guess I should check it out before just passing it on.lol

 

[OutkastBoss]

Got the supercharger out and from the research I have done so far there should be a washer here, where I am pointing with the butter knife. Also, it looks like these are metal and the ceramic ones had been replaced previously right?



Being that the washer is completely missing I bet it went down into the motor. :/
It looks like PWC Muscle or GreenHulk rebuilds superchargers for not much more than the rebuild kit. So that's likely the route we would go with that.

Now I am wondering if whoever "serviced it for him" assembled it wrong (without the one washer) or if it went into the motor. I tried to look in where the s.c. was removed and didn't see any obvious fragments or metal dust. I also stuck my finger back in there and didn't see any metal sparkles on my finger or in the oil.

It did have a fresh oil change (which would make sense if he had metal in the oil and tried to hide it. I'm probably gonna pull the oil filter and check it for metal flakes. I really don't want to have to pull this motor but it's getting serious now.

 

[ski-d00]

Nope, not metal, sure looks ceramic to me. You can take that one out and try to bend it in a vice and I'll bet it cracks in pieces. The dark grey washer above your gear in the pic is the other ceramic washer. One of them broke and is now in pieces inside the engine. Time to pull the motor and fix it right by getting all the ceramic shrapnel out so that it doesn't destroy your motor.

Nobody ever serviced it for him. That was a line of bs. Everything there looks like straight from the factory in 2005.

Small metal slivers in the oil filter is normal. This is from the bendix getting slammed into the flywheel. Ceramic pieces generally don't make it into the oil filter. They get trapped in the lower part of the motor in the front and rear screens but do end up going through the motor and scoring your crank/bearings and ruining your cam journals.

 

[OutkastBoss]

Dang, so the motor will need completely broken down?

I can get right about 5 mins into this video before I start feeling like I am in too deep, lol.

I may have to have a shop rebuild it if it needs completely broken down and rebuilt. If that is the case I guess I should have them use the newer exhaust valves that aren't sodium filled. And I also read something about a later model improved oiler shaft for the supercharger.