750 ZXI Overheating...

[cbeastwood]

Help! Yesterday I was out on the lake and the '95 750 ZXI was running fine. Next thing I know, it felt like it started to miss and bog down really bad. After only about 5 seconds of this condition, I shut it down.

I pulled the seat off and there was a small amount of smoke and it was VERY HOT in the engine compartment. It smelled as if something was burned, like rubber or something. I dripped some water on the exhaust pipe and head, and the water boiled.

I was towed in and put the ski on the trailer. At home, I noticed that there are two hoses that come through the hull just to the left of the jet pump. The TOP hose, which connects to the jet pump, much have become unconnected.

I checked compression when I returned home and got 128 PTO / 125 or so MAG. The mag side was a little lower than the PTO side, but I don't trust the actual #'s because it's a cheap gauge.

I also noticed that the copper gasket sealant I used to connect the exhaust pieces when I put the SBT engine into the boat is no longer red/orange, but now brown. I'm assuming this is what I smelled burning...

I'm also assuming that the line that came loose was a coolant line that wasn't feeding and cool water to the engine & exhaust.

So, any thoughts? Since I still have compression, should things be OK? Anything else I should check prior to my next run?

Thanks,

Craig

[langford2000]

Hello Craig, When you pulled the seat on the water - how much water was in the hull? if the main cooling line came off then you should have had a lot of water in the hull. One thing you could do is to run the ski on a flush kit to make sure water is coming from the exhaust, the pisser, and the pump area. Also a short flush kit run should show up quickly if there is a hose that is loose inside the engine compartment. Also try to get a more reliable compression gauge to make sure you engine is still sound.

Hope this helps
James [img]/graemlins/winkanim.gif[/img]

[cbeastwood]

Well, I took it out on Saturday and it ran just fine. Hopefully there won't be any long-term problems.

Also, could it be possible that the solenoid that controls coolant water exiting out of the starboard pisser might be going bad? Seems like it doesn't spit out as much water as it used to. I've noticed this over the past 8 weeks or so - it's not related to the problem listed above.

- CBE

[langford2000]

Hello again, I looked on kawi's website and the solenoid you are speaking of they call a holder assy. I am under the impression that this is the overheat sensor. The pisser on the kawasakis is only there to let you know that water is circulating through the engine. If the pisser stops up the water will just continue through the exhaust. I had a 750 ss/xi the I found this sensor to be clogged with silt, you might try removing and cleanin the unit.

Hope this helps
James [img]/graemlins/winkanim.gif[/img]

[cbeastwood]

James,

Thanks for the help. I really didn't think anything was amiss until I rode a '96 ZXI that was blowing a ton more water out the pisser than my engine.

- CBE