Permanent damage from swamping?

[Technical Support]

Yes you have permanent damage, the life of the engine is certainly comprimised. It may run for a while longer, but not too much longer.

[Bill O'Neal]

I do not totally agree.

It could have some permante damage, but you did eveything right in getting the water out. The only other thing is I like to see the ski ridden very hard for at least 30 minutes after purging the water from it.

I have seem lots of motors that were swamped, and then purged of water and still be running years later. In fact I have a 650 Jetski that has been sunk dozens of times and it still runs good after several years.
What really matters most is that you got all of the water from the motor and coated it generously with a water dispelling lubricant.

[01GTXDI]

Here's what happened today...

- Buddy was riding and he did a lot of tight turns and essentially swamped the ski…probably 3/4 full of water.
- It started to run rough, so he shut it off and swam it to shore.
- I tried to start it for just a couple seconds but didn't hit at all.
- Pulled plugs, cranked it, LOTS of water and air shooting about 6 feet into the air.
- Towed it back and put it on the trailer.
- Once at home, pulled plugs, cranked until all the water was gone.
- Shook the ski on the trailer and it started to shoot more water.
- Took off air intake silencer, used air hose to blow as much as I could out of throttle body and cylinders.
- Eventually no more water shooting out.
- Compression check was 115psi on both cylinders.
- Blew spark plugs dry and installed.
- The motor started hard and rough, but within about a minute smoothed out.
- Ran for about 10-15 minutes to heat up and dry out any other water residue.
- Sprayed some engine fogger into both throttle bodies. I know it's primarily for winterizing, but thought it might help with protecting against rust.
- Reassembled all the parts and now it starts up and runs on the trailer just like normal. I haven’t been back out on the lake yet, though.
- Total time from swamping to running … ~4 hours.

Do you think there is any permanent damage?
With the compression at 115psi, any chance of anything cracked or seals blown?
Anything else I should do now?
Other than not swamping it in the first place, anything else I could have done better?

Thanks in advance!

-Jim

[ June 19, 2003, 12:36 AM: Message edited by: 01GTXDI ]

[Pacer]

I've got a friend like that.

[01GTXDI]

Thanks for the quick replies.

I'm going to take it out to the lake after work today to heat it up and 'boil' away any remaining water....should be fun. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I've read elsewhere the compression should be ~140 psi, is 115 excessively low? Or somewhat normal?

What type of damage did/could have the water caused? Cylider wall scoring? Ring damage? Case rusting?

Is there anything I can/should replace now to avoid a complete breakdown on the far end of the lake in the future?

Mr O'Neal,

Regarding "coated it generously with a water dispelling lubricant"...where are you refering to? Internal or external? In the spark plug holes? Throttle bodies? Exhaust?

Thanks again!

-Jim

[Technical Support]

115 is low, but we are suspecting your gauge is just inaccurate.

He means inside to coat the parts that were wet.

[almstsobur]

When did you test the compression? after removing the water? or after running it? The 2 stroke oil helps to lube the cylinders and will raise your compression considerably. If you were testing the compression just after ejecting water, and not after running oil through it, that may be the cause for your low compression. Take it out for a good run today then test the compression again. My bet is it goes way up.

[ June 16, 2003, 02:40 PM: Message edited by: almstsobur ]

[01GTXDI]

Took it to the lake this evening. Ran it for about 35 minutes mostly at WOT [img]smile.gif[/img]

The ski started, ran, sounded, accelerated, and felt exactly the same as before. Even tied my personal record of 68 on the dream o'meter at 7200 rpm.

Once at home (about 30 minutes after shutdown) compression was only 100 psi...compared to 115 yesterday (once the water was out and before running it). The motor was still warm...I'll check it again once it cools off.

Any suggestions what to do next? Just keep riding it?

I would prefer not to start unbolting stuff just to look, since it's running fine. What are some warning signs that something more serious is about to happen....so it doesn't completely quit when my wife's half way across the lake.

Thanks again for all the help!

-Jim

[ June 16, 2003, 10:55 PM: Message edited by: 01GTXDI ]

[Technical Support]

Your gauge is trash - it wouldn't run nearly as well as that at 100 psi.

[Bill O'Neal]

If your compression was really 100 psi, the pistons and rings would be toast. For this reason, we professionals use very high quality expensive compression guages.

Just ride you ski and try not to swamp the motor in the future. It will do it no good at all to get it wet inside. Be sure to open all of the elecrtrical boxes, VTS and Coil, to air them out and spray WD40 onto the parts inside.

When I said lubricate the motor parts with a water dispellant, I meant spray WD40 through the intake snorkels with the engine running to lubricate and dispel the water from the internal parts of the motor.

[ccwhit7]

I feel your pain on the wife thing. You sure dont want it to quit on her across the lake [img]/graemlins/winkanim.gif[/img]