I recently purchased a 2000 Sea Doo XP jet ski. When I bought it, it had almost everything.... minus the engine. Some may say it was a big mistake to purchase a jet ski without an engine. Even with an engine that does not work, it may have been possible to just rebuild it and get it running again. Since there was nothing, I had to purchase all of the parts seperately and piece them together.
If you follow the [SEADOO SHOP MANUAL], like I did, you should not have a problem bringing the engine to life. This shop manual includes bookmarks, which makes it easier to find each section of the ski easier (just click the 2nd icon down on the left, after the PDF file loads).
Pictures of the ski I bought:
First thing is first....
Empty out the gas. If your ski has the gray fuel lines, replace them with new lines from an auto parts store. The gray fuel lines deteriorate and can gum up the carbs and cause problems to the engine.
This page describes, in detail, how to empty the gas and replace the fuel lines
In regards to the engine,
I first bought a package deal of cylinders, a crank (unusable condition), flywheel, PTO coupler, counterbalancer, throttle cable, and exhaust manifold for $200.
Not a bad deal since the cylinders alone are about $300.
Here is a close-up of the cylinders:
These cylinders would have to be bored out and honed in order to use them.
I decided to send them to FullBoreOnline.com. For about $375 you get the cylinders bored, honed, the ports chamfered, and the R.A.V.E. valves relieved. You also get pistons, rings, and a complete gasket set to put it all back together. Not a bad deal, and they deal with these particular engines cylinders all of the time, so they know what they are doing.
Next, I found a complete engine:
I thought, maybe I could rebuild this engine and get it running.
But,
It had a giant hole in the bottom.
Usually the 951 engines will throw a rod though the case. Most of the time it is a small hole and can easily be repaired by welding it. In this instance, the hole is too big to repair and these cases are useless to me.
This:
is what happens when the oil injection system fails...Ouch!!!
I bought a set of used cases
in super-good condition off of eBay. These cases are a matched set (the top and bottom half were machined together in order to make sure they match up).
DO NOT BUY A TOP HALF OR BOTTOM HALF SEPERATELY !!!
I then had the crankshaft from the bad engine rebuilt. It needed a new rod, bearings and seals. The same person who rebuilt the crank also put the bottom end together for me.
(Remember to add oil to the crankshaft counterbalancer reservoir if you put your own bottom end together.)
These:
are the cylinders after they were bored and honed by FullBoreOnline.com
They do an excellent job
And they also supply new piston sets and gaskets to put the top end back onto the bottom end.
Beefy!
Notice that the edges of the ports are chamfered.
Chamfering the ports increases the life of the piston rings. By chamfering the ports, the piston rings are less likely to snag themselves on the edges of the ports.
Install the pistons onto the connecting rod
Be sure that the arrow on the piston is facing towards the Intake/Exhaust ports and that the openings of the circular clips, which hold the wrist pins in, are facing upwards.
Both pistons
are now attached to the connecting rods.
Now, install the cylinders.
After you line up the piston ring gap with the little pin on the piston, you can compress the rings with your fingers in order to install the cylinders.
Do one piston at a time. Put one piston at the compression stroke and install it fully into the cylinder. Then, install the second piston into the next cylinder.
Cylinders mated with the bottom end.
While installing the head studs,
they should be installed after all of the nuts have been removed.
Remove the nuts:
Install 2 nuts onto the opposite end.
Tighten the two nuts together.
Place a box-end wrench onto the inside nut and turn the stuck nut off with a 15mm socket.
Place an o-ring onto the head stud,
and install the head stud through the cylinder and into the bottom end. The o-ring will seat itself halfway down through the cylinder.
Tighten in the head studs using the method above.
Torque the head studs to 3 lb ft. / 5 nm. / 44 lb in.
Don't forget the loctite on the threads !
This is the head for the 951 engine:
Make sure that the domes are not pitted. Pitting can cause hot spots on the dome and can ruin your new engine. The head that came with my complete engine was pitted. I got a used head, in way better condition, from eBay.
If the head was used before, remove all of the old gasket and lightly sand (800 or 1000 grit) the gasket surface to make it flat and clean.
Be sure that the cooling ports in the head are clean and not blocked.
Install the head and torque the head nuts to 25 lb ft. / 34 nm.
Here is the complete engine installed into the ski
Have a friend help, because about 100 pounds of engine is heavy especially when you are trying to line up the mounting holes and the PTO shaft onto the PTO output of the engine.
I put it in myself, and it wasn't easy.
In this picture:
The R.A.V.E. valves, reed valves, and intake manifolds are installed.
Be sure that the R.A.V.E. valves are clean and functioning properly (refer to the shop manual).
The reed valves should also be clean and free of cracks (reed valves are behind the intake manifolds).
Install the cooling line input
on the top of the engine and the temperature sensor and wires.
DONT FORGET THE COOLING OUTPUT on the bottom end on the back of the engine. I almost did, which may have resulted in a sunken ski. I had to buy a new line for the output, since there was none in the hull when I bought it. I believe it is a 5/16" ID line.
DO NOT INSTALL THE CARBS BEFORE THE EXHAUST
It was a pain to install the exhaust with the carbs on. I should have removed the carbs and then installed the exhaust, but I didn't and it was a pain.
Picture of the complete engine.
Attach the cooling lines
Refer to the shop manual to make sure the lines are routed correctly.
I removed all of the stock decals,
to make the ski look cleaner.
The decals can be removed by using a hair dryer. Heat up the decal near the edge and peel up with your fingernail or a plastic scraper. Do not use a razor blade, it will scratch the gel kote.
After I got the registration numbers in the mail,
after registering the ski, I got these registration decals online at DoItYourselfLettering.com
DoItYourselfLettering.com allows you to chose from a vast array of fonts, colors, sizes, and styles for any lettering you may need. They also have excellent customer service.
