Another newbe here: 2000 XL1200LTD

[Bill S]

I am a novice and would appreciate any words of wisdom. I bought a 2000 XL1200LTD last year with only 44 hours on it. The prior (and original owner) kept this immaculate and garage kept as do I. Last summer it worked flawlessly. This summer it still works very well but occasionally looses power for 5 - 10 seconds, may even stall, but then works fine after that. The loss of power occurs just after starting up, both from the first start of the day and after sitting for an hour or so. After regaining power, it works great! I have read several threads about this and as well as threads that #3 cylinders for this model year have a history. My questions are 1) what do I do about the brief loss of power that does eventually fully recover and 2) is there any preventative maintenance I should do (or a professional) to reduce the chance of costly damage? I don't mind making a small investment to save on big repairs. Yes, the plugs are new, all else seems to work well and has about 60 hours now.
Thanks!

[jigeye]

Re: Another newbe here: 2000 XL1200LTD

Hi Bill:
First let me state I am a somewhat "newbie", however, I have this engine and just removed and replaced it with one from SBT. I spent a lot of time with the maintenance manual and became very familiar with the engines operation during this experience. Before I forget, USE SBT! They are awesome. Super satisfied customer. OK here goes:
1. Reed valves. They allow fuel air to enter the bottom of the piston for the next stroke. I have included a pic of mine. Sometimes these little plastic fins will either break off or have big gaps. This causes initial starting problems. Go to the technical side of SBT and there is a video on this. An easy way to tell is pull the flame arrestor off and look to see if fuel/oil is coated on the bottom of it. It there is, this means that one/some of the reed valves have broken off. A reed valve kit is only 80-90 bucks so no big deal there.
2. Either take the ski to a professional or get a compression gauge (autozone) with a 1/2 inch adapter. Check the compression of all three cylinders and note the psi. A bad cylinder can be found here. Send the #s to SBT for evaluation or consult a mechanic. Also pull the plugs out and see if there is any white/silver metal coating. If so, this usually means a cyl failure.
3. Oil injection system. Check to make sure all the lines from the oil pump to the cylinder intakes are secured. If one of these has fallen off, it means that cylinder didn't get oil and you've lost a cylinder.
It could be anything, however, these are a few easy things you can do to troubleshoot. Also, I highly advise spending 8 bucks for a maintenance manual from midwest manuals. Just google it and buy one. A worthy investment.
good luck

[Madfish]

Re: Another newbe here: 2000 XL1200LTD

1) Your #1 priority with that ski is to remove oil injection system, install block off plate, and go with premix 40.1 ratio. This way you are 100% sure the engine is getting the lubrication it needs. Cost: 10.00

2) Your #2 priority is to install wave-eater clips (waveeater.com). The powervalve engine is notorious for valves dropping into cylinder. These clips are a must. Cost: 100.00

3) remove catalytic converter and install d-plate and chip. The cat con gets clogged with exhaust carbon and begins to rob power. Cost: 100.00

4) clean and rebuild those carbs. This is probably what is causing your performance issue right now. carb work on this ski is a real pain in the *** because you have to remove the exhaust to get to the carbs, but well worth the time. although the ski has low hours, it is 10 years old. Get yourself 3 rebuild kits from SBT. Cost: 150.00

5) check cylinder compression. It should be fine, but just to be safe, check compression on all 3 cylinders. That motor, new, has 120 psi on each cylinder. With 60 hours you should have about 115 to 118 psi. Pull all 3 plugs, hold throttle wide open, hit start button for about 5 seconds. Do it twice on each cylinder.

That's a great ski, you should get 200-300 hours on that motor if you take good care of it.

[Bill S]

Re: Another newbe here: 2000 XL1200LTD

Thanks for the feedback, this is exactly the advice I need. Is there any urgency to these repairs/modifications? I am confient that I am getting full power, still get 60mph, but don't want to push my luck.
Thanks!
Bill

[Madfish]

Re: Another newbe here: 2000 XL1200LTD

Urgency?

SBT has sold over 66,000 engines in the last 10 years. I'm guessing but 60,000 of those were probably 2 stroke engines, and I'll bet that the number one cause of engine failure is from faulty oil injection systems. Get rid of your oil injection soon. Tom in tech could probably answer that.

Get those wave-eater clips too. I had a 2000 XL1200 Ltd with 86 hours and one of the powervalves broke, valve fell into the piston, destroyed the piston and cylinder.

Why clean or rebuild the carbs? A problem with your carburetor can cause a lean condition which can seize a piston and destroy a cylinder.

Of course you can just ride it until something breaks like most people do, or pray in church more often.

[Bill S]

Re: Another newbe here: 2000 XL1200LTD

Thanks again for the words of wisdom! I'll get those taken care of.
Bill

[Bill S]

Re: Another newbe here: 2000 XL1200LTD

Just some feedback to all - I had the recommended modifications from this forum made to my jetski. I took the jetski to a service center since I didn't feel comfortable doing that level of work. Anyway, they really liked the wave eater power valve clips! They said that was money well spent!

Also, by removing the cat and installing the D plate, all the minor sputtering problems disappeared. Thanks to all and please continue to provide your words of wisdom to this forum.