Tweet
I am new to the PWC community but I have had several boats. My kids asked if we could get a PWC and I foolishly said "sure, if you can find a good used one!" They found one and we picked it up the next day. The Sea Doo ran great and only had 140 hours on it. I did notice that the current owner was using the wrong grade of 2-cycle oil but he said that the stuff he was using worked fine and it was a lot cheaper. Plus he had been using it since new and had no problems. Just to be sure, I pumped out the oil tank and replaced it with the correct grade of oil. We put about 40 hours on it and put it away for the season after winterizing it. About 10 hours into this season, the engine seized tight as a drum. The only way I could move the crankshaft was to take the head off and pound on the head of the piston with a block of wood and a hammer. I am pretty mechanically inclined but I decided against rebuilding and to buy and remanufactured engine from SBT (instead of fixing my existing one) and install it myself. The 951 DI motor is expensive so I got the premium engine for the extra warranty.
I made two mistakes. First, I did not remove the nipple from the crankcase for water intake. I called SBT and they sent me one for the cost of shipping only. That was above and beyond. It is something the website says that they DO NOT DO! They did it anyway and I appreciate it very much. I also forgot to remove the case cooler from the bottom of the case. This is because I didn't recognize it for what it was. SBT couldn't help me with that so I ordered one from Watercraft Superstore with the 10 SS bolts for about $60. The biggest problem with this was that I didn't recognize it until I had the engine installed and had hooked up all of the lines. I had two water lines left that I couldn't figure out where to connect. They were to connect to the case cooler. Water under the bridge but it did cut the cost of my engine alignment tool to $75 per use ;-). I also bought a new oil pump just for peace of mind.
I found tech support to be hit or miss. Some folks that I talked to were top notch. They listened, were patient and provided great answers. Some calls, I felt that they just wanted to get me off of the phone. There was and easy workaround for this. I just thanked them and called back later and someone else would answer.
Customer support was always great. I am a soldier and they gave me a 5% discount. Doesn't sound like a lot but on a $1,900 engine, it is real money.
The bottom line is that I have the new engine installed and it runs like new. Total cost for Engine, oil pump, engine alignment tool, and parts I forgot to remove was around $2,280. Far below the $4,300 quoted by my local Sea Doo dealer (Pete's cycle in Baltimore). By the way, they buy their engines from SBT too.
I made two mistakes. First, I did not remove the nipple from the crankcase for water intake. I called SBT and they sent me one for the cost of shipping only. That was above and beyond. It is something the website says that they DO NOT DO! They did it anyway and I appreciate it very much. I also forgot to remove the case cooler from the bottom of the case. This is because I didn't recognize it for what it was. SBT couldn't help me with that so I ordered one from Watercraft Superstore with the 10 SS bolts for about $60. The biggest problem with this was that I didn't recognize it until I had the engine installed and had hooked up all of the lines. I had two water lines left that I couldn't figure out where to connect. They were to connect to the case cooler. Water under the bridge but it did cut the cost of my engine alignment tool to $75 per use ;-). I also bought a new oil pump just for peace of mind.
I found tech support to be hit or miss. Some folks that I talked to were top notch. They listened, were patient and provided great answers. Some calls, I felt that they just wanted to get me off of the phone. There was and easy workaround for this. I just thanked them and called back later and someone else would answer.
Customer support was always great. I am a soldier and they gave me a 5% discount. Doesn't sound like a lot but on a $1,900 engine, it is real money.
The bottom line is that I have the new engine installed and it runs like new. Total cost for Engine, oil pump, engine alignment tool, and parts I forgot to remove was around $2,280. Far below the $4,300 quoted by my local Sea Doo dealer (Pete's cycle in Baltimore). By the way, they buy their engines from SBT too.
Comment