David Elliott
New Member
Ok guys here is my situation. I have a 1996 GTI with a fully stock 717, nothing fancy, does everything I need it to do. Problem is, last use it got some saltwater into the front cover of the motor and seized up the motor over the winter. Sucks because I just replaced all fuel lines, rebuilt carbs. rebuilt pump, and all the other routine stuff last July on it. Also, I have a 1994 XP with a 657 in it that I got in trade for some work I helped a guy with. the XP looks pretty rough, ok very rough, however it does run, it has some issues (carbs need to be cleaned, either driveshaft,pto, or both have some damaged spline on them). What I am thinking it just ditch the XP all together and swap that motor over to my GTI. I may lose a few HP, but if I want to go fast, I'd go by an RXP or something. Since I have everything, electrical and all, i'm thinking this will be a failry straight forward swap. Just swap over motors and plates, use my PTO and shaft off my 717, and use the electrical system off my 657. As for carbs I could use the ones from the 717 and just jet them down to correct 657 jetting. Is there anything I am missing here or is it really a pretty straight forward swap? While I am at it, are there any small/cheap tweaks worth doing to the 657 to gain anything from, or just leave it alone and call it good. I'm not looking to go 70 mph here, 45-50 is just fine with me for what I use the ski for.
