Yikes! Something broke, don't know what or how to diagnose!

[Michael211_2000]

I can finally confirm for a fact my problem was the spark plugs... either 2 or all 3 had gone bad all at once somehow last August (due to Texas drought, there was nowhere to take it out again last Fall to test it with new plugs). Yesterday (Memorial Day 2012) was the 1st time I've had my RXT back in the water (with 3 brand new spark plugs installed) and it ran great for 2 hours straight, thru the entire RPM range... purred like a kitten. Just too weird that the previous set of plugs went bad all at once while under-way. I definitely got sidetracked with the compression thingy on here last August when this happened, and I was pretty spooked by the way the engine had all but shut-down on me that last day at the lake. While the previous plugs would still spark (I checked them!), there was something wrong with them evidentally. Weird!

Regards!

- Michael

 

[ski-d00]

Now THAT'S a conclusion to a long thread.

New plugs have fixed all kind of weird problems in 4tecs that people tend to self diagnose, I call them SeaDoochondriacs. Had a guy tell me to rebuild his 4tec motor because it was shot with low compression and I quoted him $3000. guess what, changed his plugs and lake tested and it ran like new. charged him $30 and he didn't believe it even after he rode it. I think he still thinks I rebuilt it just to be nice but I'm not that nice.

 

[Michael211_2000]

Now THAT'S a conclusion to a long thread.

Yeah don't I know it! Too much crap and suggestions that had nothing to do with the 4TEC series engine. A brand new but questionable compression guage didn't help matters either. I was about ready to pull my hair out here last August/September! :-(

And I'd thought I'd previously put the new plugs in, in fact I was convinced the plugs it was running were the new plugs.... till I opened up the spare plugs storage canister and discovered THOSE were the new plugs (still had the little screw on electrode caps on them). Ooops! Some days you're the dog, some days you're the fire hydrant...

- Michael

 

[Coastiejoe]

Not sure if Sea Doo is like the older Polaris skis, but if you had resister plugs from the factory, the module was designed for resister plugs. If you put in non-resister plugs, it would run like crap.

Spark is so crucial it is not funny. I use to repair vehicles, by the time people finally brought their cars in for repair, in most cases the plugs were crap as they had cranked the engine so long. Still sparked, but didn't have the energy behind the spark.

Glad you have it fixed, no go enjoy yourself...