Oil in cylinders after winter storage

[barryc]

I put my jet ski away in December and pulled it out today. I checked the plugs added fuel and oil. Cranked it over, it turned over a few timed and stopped and would not crank. I changed the battery and it did the same thing. I pulled the plugs and they were covered with oil. I cranked the motor with the plugs out and got a lot of oil pumping out of both cylinders. I also noticed some oil in the hull that was not there before I tried to start it. It ran fine when parked.

1999 SeaDoo GTI motor replaced in Aug 2001 with a SBT short block dealer installed approximately 20 hour on the motor.

[Technical Support]

We have had a number of cases exactly reported as this one, where the engine has some amount of oil in the combustion side of the cases, appearantly leaking from the rotary shaft cavity. Som people say it takes a few weeks to leak, some say a few months.

In the last several cases, we have very rigorously tested each engine as it came back and have not been able to find a leak. I have tried the standard prescribed leak down, both static and dynamic on our compression tester while spinning. I have also tried it spinning on the compression tester while hooked to an external oil bath, simulating the ski environment. No leak. I have had for over a week now, one such returned engine on a test ebnch with an oil system hooked up, monitoring the oil level for a breach. So far, nothing.

While I can only tell you it sounds like the oil seals have leaked, I cannot say for certain, as so far I can not assertain the root cause.

While you are certainly welcome to call Julie and get a replacement, I can't gaurantee it will solve the problem as it may not be the block.

[barryc]

Is there anything I can do before I request a replacement? I have no problem if it is long-term seepage. But it seems to be pumping a lot of oil when I crank it and does not seem to be stopping do you think that if I keep cranking it over time it will stop pumping oil out of the cylinders if it is long term seepage. And if so how much do you think would have seeped I have soaked two hand towels that are about 10" X 18" with oil from the cylinders and there is no sign of it slowing down yet. Is there anything else you can think of that could be causing this problem.

[ May 28, 2003, 11:17 PM: Message edited by: barryc ]

[Technical Support]

In your case then it seems you may indeed have leaking seals. In the other cases it would not continue to leak like that, it was only long term.

[Dick]

I have seen the check valves in the injection system cause this problem with snowmobile engines, pretty much the same. They have a ball check in them that is overcome by 3lbs pressure from the pump. The newer ones that are pressed into the cases seem worse that the older ones that are in the banjo fittings. I have never seen that problem on a Sea-Doo though.

[Bill O'Neal]

Brian,
That was going to be my next question that **** brought up. Are the engines that you have been bench testing equipt with check valves on the injectors or not? Alot of Sea Doo motors 580-720 do not even have check valves on the intake manifold/injectors. I bet that is where the problem lies. It takes 1.5lbs of pressure to open the check valves on 787-951 motors. This lends me to believe that earlier model oil injection pumps must have a built-in check valve that doesn't need the injector nozzel check valves. Maybe the check valves in the pumps are stuck if they even have them in there?

Try putting your oil tank below the pump, and see if it stop siphoning the oil into your test motor.

[Bill O'Neal]

What, you can't write Richard on this forum?

[Technical Support]

Well....interestingly enough, overnight, one of the test bench motors here started leaking after a week and a half. Now at least I can verify the problem and find out what breached and why.

[Dick]

On our mod snowmobile motors we used to put a small bottle for the gear oil bath and use Klotz oil so you could smell it in the exhaust. It has a sweet smell when burned. If you have it on a dyno or test bench that would be easy to do. I still used Bombardier oil in the injectors. This whole deal is a big culpret with bent rods or smashed bearings. It'll hydro-lock when it transfers.

BTW- When I see this in a motor that has been stored, I pressure check the gear Hsg. If it is OK I just change the fitting. Even when you get them out they seem OK by blowing on them, but replacing will fix it. The non RV motors have a pressed in fitting that seems worse, it will pass air either way when it fails. Again this is with snowmobile motors.

[ May 29, 2003, 07:05 PM: Message edited by: Dick ]

[barryc]

Well, I came home from work and spent about 2 hours in the garage. The motor is now sitting on the floor next to the Jet Ski. Have you figured out what the problem was with the motor you have on the bench that started leaking?

I cranked my motor one more time before removed it from the ski and shot oil 20' across the garage. I then had to clean my motorcycle.

If the seals are bad is this some thing I can change out or do I need to do a motor swap out. I have rebuilt tons of car motors and built drag racing cars for 5 years (about 20 years ago) and just installed a hypercharger and stage III jet kit on my bike. But, have never worked on one of these before.

Any input would be appreciated

Thanks

[Technical Support]

Yeah, we need to swap it, and it will be some time before I can fully diagnose this test engine.