Waverunner General Knowledge

peter1234 wrote: Horkn (We once had one ski get a clam caught in the jet intake)

Yeah, that was funny. At least is was fresh water and not a giant clam in saltwater. LOL

Horkn

(We once had one ski get a clam caught in the jet intake)   

I don't think this has been mentioned. Buy a bunch of fuel cans. Notice the fuel can on the wall. It is rare to see just one can. There were weekends last season where we went through 75 gallons of fuel, mostly in the PWC's. When you do the math, it makes sense. ≈100hp each, running close to full throttle when the kids are on them = many trips to the gas station.   
This photo must have been taken in the morning. The bay is calm, and the boats, minus the pontoon, are docked.

Hollywood wrote: All the bouncing around when riding the sit downs tear the hair off my ass cheeks if it's rough out, f that. Stand ups are cool, and not just any idiot can pilot one.

Some are better in the rough, but yeah I agree with you. I miss my hurricane though. As a sport class craft, it could handle as good as the stand ups, but still technically carry 2 people and wouldn't tip over if you came to a stop.

I also had a limited class built race kawasaki stand up. that ski was crazy fast up to 50 mph, and I had several of my sit down PWC riding friends attempt to ride it, and only 1 besides me could even get up on it and do more than swamp it. fun times...

Back to the bilge pumps o these PWC, most of the sit down ones have traditional bilge pumps, just like in our ski boats. Some only have the ones that use water pressure (or actually vacuum) to evacuate water from the hull at speed. I had an electric one on my kawi 650 standup because I liked to do a lot of submarining.

Mine had a fitting at the highest point in the cooling system, just unscrewed a cap and poured in till it ran out the back, about half a gallon or less. Far easier than my skinautique

05 210 wrote: horkn wrote:    but winterizing them is really as easy as starting it up out of water and clearing any water from the cooling system simply by revving it up a little. I do not agree Horkn. I know people who have been bit in the ass doing that. Best to use antifreeze, unless its getting stored in an area that stays above feezing. I'm not saying it would freeze, i'm saying it could. Not a risk I would take. Mike

None of the PWC I have ever know have ever been stored with anti freeze. No problems on any of them and none were ever stored indoors over winters.


If the PWC was not run long enough out of water, yeah, you could have a problem with freezing, but not running them long enough to clear all water from the motor is not a good thing to try. You would have to runt he motor a long time before you would risk engine trouble from overheat out of water.
It certainly would not hurt to use some AF, but it's more of a PITA to do on a PWC than a boat.

All the bouncing around when riding the sit downs tear the hair off my ass cheeks if it's rough out, f that. Stand ups are cool, and not just any idiot can pilot one.

I love me a good jet ski ride. I do agree that there are some IDIOTS that ride them. But, if you love the water, love boating, and just love being out there a jet ski is really really fun.

My dad and I both bought used skis a couple years ago...when there is no one around and we have an hour to kill (not enough time for an all day boat outting) we will hop on the skis and just cruise down the river, hit up our backwater fishin spots, find out new huntin spots, and just explore some flooded water. It's a blast!

wakeboardin2k4 wrote: 05 210 wrote: horkn wrote:    but winterizing them is really as easy as starting it up out of water and clearing any water from the cooling system simply by revving it up a little. I do not agree Horkn. I know people who have been bit in the ass doing that. Best to use antifreeze, unless its getting stored in an area that stays above feezing. I'm not saying it would freeze, i'm saying it could. Not a risk I would take. Mike +1 Mike. For 2 gallons of antifreeze and 10 minutes of time to winterize the ski right. Its worth the effort

+2 I antifreeze untill it comes out the tail end. There are also reports of air boxes splitting due to water still in them from improper roll overs.

horkn wrote:    but winterizing them is really as easy as starting it up out of water and clearing any water from the cooling system simply by revving it up a little.

I do not agree Horkn. I know people who have been bit in the ass doing that. Best to use antifreeze, unless its getting stored in an area that stays above feezing. I'm not saying it would freeze, i'm saying it could. Not a risk I would take.

Mike

Joel,   as you know, when used properly, they don't deserve the bad rap some give them.

That said while I have never owned a 4 stroke pwc, they are all very easy to maintain. Yamaha does build very good PWC, and pride themselves with marine capable motors, unlike other brands.

In late fall, take the battery out and store at least inside the house and preferably put it on a trickle charger. Obviously you would change oil preferably before you put it away for the winter, but winterizing them is really as easy as starting it up out of water and clearing any water from the cooling system simply by revving it up a little. All pwc motors seem to be pretty failsafe for cooling systems and not having fragile RWP impellers like IB boats do. As mentioned they get water from the jet drive system, so no rwp impeller to burn up.


It's not really the sand that is the issue, but more so what is in the sand. Usually running these in a lot of shallow sand water will lead to excessive gap between the impeller( the prop on a jet system)and the wear ring that surrounds the impeller. I've personally never seen a need to replace any of the wear rings on any of the 8 pwc that my friend and my family have owned over the years, and we used to do a lot of river running in shallower sand.

I've rebuilt the one we have now, and also another that needed repair that my brother ended up buying.   Yes, working inside the hull of a pwc is a PITA, especially compared to a similar motor on a snowmobile.


Congrats on your purchase, and I know you, like my family will give pwc'ers a better name in the skiing community.

Joel, They are a lot of fun but get operated differently just by their nature, I had a 1996 Seadoo xp, 8 foot long and 110 hp. The thing had capabilities far beyond my ability to hold on to it. It was most fun spinning in circles and jumping waves, It is easy in the pursuit of fun for an adult, let alone a teenager, to ignore common sense and forget that everyone else on the lake wants to go at a constant speed and heading. As said be carefull letting newbies take it for a spin, the lack of a rudder is very strange to get used to, you need power on for any kind of directional change, and that violates normal instincts when you are about to hit something. I always instructed users to practice turning at slow speeds and trying to turn power off to reprogram thier instincts. I here the four strokes are much more reliable. I used to do searches for two strokes for sale and most had new engines. Mine did not so I decided to sell it before it needed one. I know every time mine went into the shop it seemed to cost 700$. try to always start it in several feet of water, stay away from weed beds, roll it the right way when it flips and dry it out and run it immediatly if somone turns it the wrong way and hydrolocks it, or it will rust up internally. Happened to mine once, would not turn over . I thought the battery had died till I charged it and still nothing happened. I pulled the plugs, and turned it over and shoot water two feet from the plug holes. I finally dried it out enough to start around sunset and ran it untill warm to re-lube everything, no problems afterwards but if I had given up and stuck it on the trailer for a week I may not have been so lucky. If it is has three up seating it will not likely roll . My little xp was very unstable at idle, and rolled often, but with just a little throttle it became very stable. I always started mine briefly after pulling it out of the water and reved enough to clear the extra water out. They are a blast though.

Here, have a beer.

Theyre pretty simple to work on. A little different than a CC motor but nothing someone with a solid service manual and average mechanical skills cant handle from a maintenance stand point.

Anything requiring computer diagnostics...obviously youre SOL

It seems like a very complex engine in a very small area. I mean, 4cyl, 4 cycle in a space as big as our cooler. Hopefully Yamaha = Reliable. That was what the family was shooting for, anyway.