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1998 Seadoo Challenger 1800 torque on head

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DonnaandBo

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Hi there! We are new to this forum. Does anybody know the torque on the head for 1998 Seadoo Challenger 1800? We just got this boat in April 2016 and had nothing but problems. Last week took it out it didn't want to go anywhere. We noticed it was spitting like it had no spark and ring like it was on one cylinder. However it did only 10 miles even with the rpm's reved up high, never went any faster. Got it home tested compression on pistons. One has no compression. So we ordered a new piston with sleeve compression ring and oil ring and looked at wear rings. One broken pretty bad. Ordered 2 new ones. Hoping that this will solve the problem. Does anybody know the torque on the head? Any information is greatly appreciated. Had boats before but never jet boat. This is all new to us...
 
Well.... Sell the boat while your ahead or decide to become an amateur Seadoo mechanic; I'm serious.

There is a reason why the piston seized (broken ring) if you just replaced the piston it will seize again in a very short time. More than likely you have a crank seal that is dried out and is letting air in which is leaning out your fuel mixture causing what is called a lean siezer. The bad news is you will have to pull the engine and split the case to replace the seals, and if you are going to take the time to replace the seals on one engine you might as well pull both engines and replace the seals on the other engine as well. If the crank bearings are making noise, you will need to get a rebuilt crank. We are talking at least 30 hours of labor and three to five hundred dollars per engine.

I'm not trying to discourage you, but these are the realities of owning a Seadoo 2 stroke Jet boat.
 
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ok usually people don't sell things at a good price unless stuff is wrong. First you don't buy it until you see it run and move on the water fine. If the seller won't do that walk away or offer much less. You can do a compression test also before you buy it but on water you know for sure. The boat is 18 years old I beat theses are OEM motors never been touched. If boats in good shape and you paid a good price you will need 2 engines, fuel system maintenance, and driveline maintenance. Real money if you impellers are good you are looking at $3K doing the work yourself.
 
Yea. The boat had rebuilt motors and carbs. Was running pretty good had a few minor problems. We replaced both fuel pumps baffle pick up cleaned carbs changed hoses spark plugs new Rotax 2 stroke oil high test gas. Was running pretty good them seaweed got in had to manually pull out. We redid all upholstery ourselves. Looks brand.new. We are keeping the boat. Just have to fix the problem. My husband dies all the work. We order new parts thank you for the reply
 
You can get the manual for free on many sites for the boat. If the rings froze to the piston either lack of cooling or fuel. It could of been cooling if the pump got full of seaweed and the engine was still running. If you broke a ring it could be the rave valves if they weren't trimmed when the engine was rebuilt. Might have to bore out the cylinder. If engines were just rebuilt you might of still had a warranty if you had them rebuilt most carry a 2 year warranty on them but you can't open them up. If you are using synthetic oil you should be ok with that. You just want to find the issue for the piston failure so you won't have it again.
 
Except for the money the worse part is getting to things in the engine hole. Depending on your husbands size and flexibleness it sucks sometimes and others its not bad at all. I personally like the way the Canadian engineering is done that being said its a boat and depending on how much salt it has seen there can be some stuck nuts and bolts just like any of your other boats. The engine alignment is critical to longevity of the driveline. The carbs are critical to the longevity of the motor. The fuel system cleanliness is critical to the carbs staying clean, thus not destroying your investment, possibly what happened already and/or the cooling system is just as critical on these 2 strokes so check it too before you put it all back together, sand in the jugs it common to mess things up. If you guys are this deep you should definitely have a shop manual. Make sure to clearance the raves with the pistons as said above. Do not run outboard oil in these motors they run hotter than outboards and the oil dosent have the right stuff in it. You need api-tc oil only not any tcw type oil. Iassume you are changing the cone oil since you are doing the wear rings. Good luck, I love our 1800 depending how good you expect it to ride compaired to what ever other kind of boat you had you will probably like it. :cheers:
 
Seadoo Factory Shop Manual is your midnight friend, available online.
Loss of compression:
Root cause may have been leaking crankshaft seals, leak check as per manual and replace if needed.
or carburetor passages are plugged with corrosion/dirt/fuel gum. Always assume carburetors are plugged and need rebuilding, it's quite common at this age and a real piston killer.

It's unwise to run a 2-stroke if it's not running properly, it won't be running very long. Always use good, fresh fuel, stale-skunky fuel will also score pistons.
 
Sorry for being so negative!
First torque to 17lbs, center first moving to the outside then re-torque to 30 lbs.
Assuming you have 787s

Welcome to the forum:)
 
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Thank you all for your input! And yes one engine giving us a problem One is fine

Sorry for being so negative!
First torque to 17lbs, center first moving to the outside then re-torque to 30 lbs.

Assuming you have a 787, sounds like a single engine?
Welcome to the forum:)

Thank you, yes it is one engine giving us a problem, the other is fine. Thank you to all for your input...
 
Ok. So we took apart the piston and found a very bad piston. Whole top of it gone. The sleeve was even stuck inside the housing. So we are just going to send both housings with the sleeves and pistons back to SBT and Order the complete set fir $475. Includes everything. Cheaper than replacing part by part. It says we should also replace the raves. So we are looking it up and for each rave it's going to be about $180. That's almost $700. Wondering if we should just buy a whole new remanufactured engine. We are just trying to fix this problem, then my husband said thru the winter he's going to buy new engines for next year. We using the best. The $47 a gallon of 2 stroke oil and high test gasoline. We are just hoping to get some time running the boat this summer. What do you think? Wish us luck..and it's kinda cool, I'm learning about the boat and parts. We noticed that on this engine where the bad piston with no compression and stuck housing also has an old rave on it. Previous owner replaced only 1 rave. Should we replace both or just one? We have gone this far, mine as well do it right the first ime. Thank you in advance for reply..
 
Can we have some pics of that bad piston. If it came apart you might need a new crank any way. So a remand motor might be the way to go. How much more summer do you have?
 
So the 2 pistons had so much carbon built up on them. One was missing the whole top layer. Crazy. So we ordered avwhole new engine from SBT. Only $845 then we ordered 2 new RAVE kits. Working on it now. Thanks
 
Make sure to rebuild and/or replace your carburetors. It's very important the fuel system is in tip-top condition or else the same problem will occur again in a short time. By this I mean the engine should run correctly, no lean hesitation, bogging or poor performance. If you experience poor performance then stop using the engine immediately until you can locate the problem, don't "finish the day on the water" unless it's being pulled by another boat or paddling!

There are some very small precision drilled passages in the carburetors called the pilot ports, these tend to corrode inside and the passages diameter is reduced. This causes a lean fuel mixture, usually lean hesitation and stalling, engine falls flat on it's face during acceleration, especially light acceleration.

In short, disassemble and clean those Mikuni carburetors thoroughly internally, even then you may still experience piston-eating hesitation.

There are many versions of these carburetors, there should be no need to change the calibration so just plan for some new parts such as gasket kit, including needle valve and seat. Probably a new diaphragm would be a good idea especially if original one is not soft like a rose petal.

KEEP THE ORIGINAL metering spring (if it's original, hard to know for sure), there are at least four Mikuni springs that are different and it's easy to get the wrong spring and that doesn't work well.

You might want this manual, it helps to explain about how the carburetor works and can save you time. This manual is not specifically for your carburetor, it covers several models and is general information. For specific info concerning calibration detail, use the specifications given in the Seadoo factory shop manual for your engine model and configuration.

http://www.mikuni.com/pdf/sbn_manual.pdf
 
Ok. We took the boat out today for a test. Ran slow then noticed the starboard motor revs up high rpm's but no power. Feels like propulsion is slipping. Does anybody have any idea what oukdvcause this?
 
Wear ring clearance, carbon seal assy, neoprene seal between pump housing and support, pump shoe and ride plate sealant, chewed up impeller edges to name a few
 
Yea. We replaced both wear rings. Still doing it. The impellers have a little chipping damage not alot, but after looking t videos, it coukd be our problem. We need to take it apart again check the clearance of wear rings. Probably need new carbon seal assemblies and neoprene seals.
 
Hi there. If we have a bad carbon seal can that make the boat run at a low speed but not a high speed? Any reply greatly appreciated?
 
If the carbon seal is worn and egg-shapped inside your jet pump will suck air from the bilge and air gets into the impeller causing it to slip.

Take a close look and see if the carbon piece is off-center from the stainless ring it seals against, might be able to tension the rubber bellows more by loosening the thru-hull hose clamp and sliding the bellows tighter toward the engine to improve the seal then retighten the clamp.

This year I rotated my rubber bellows 180 degrees, to try extending the carbon seal's life by wearing it in a new spot, was working fine before and still is. The rubber bellows provides the necessary tension, works like a spring and will weaken over time as it ages.

You can also smear grease on the face of the carbon piece for a temporary solution but this will cause it to fail completely in a short period of time.
 
My vote would be the neoprene seal between the pump and the pump mount. But all the other things you and others have mentioned will have an effect on the cavitation problem you are experiencing.
 
Thank you all for your help. So my husband took apart pulled out driveshafts bellows carbon seal. We noticed the rubber piece on end of driveshaft is compactly gone and the driveshafts are rusty not sure if they are straight, but should we replace the driveshafts or can we just replace the rubber seal on it? My husband said he doesn't know if maybevthe driveshaft coukd be wobbly. Also the impellers are some dingson them so we are going to replace them should we just do impellers or the whole impeller assembly? Should we order the internal driveshaft rebuild kit or new driveshaft? We also noticed that our new wear ring on the side that isn't running good that is slipping is a little chewed up. This is a new wear ring with 1 hour on it. Do you think that the driveline is wobbling? Please tell us what we should do..thank you
 
If you chewed up a new wear ring with out sucking abunch of stuff up in it then the bearings in that pump are probably bad, you should not be able to wiggle the small "internal" shaft (impeller shaft), rust on the drive shaft is no big deal as long as its not bent, the rubber bumper on both ends of the shaft is critical, and engine alignment is critical. If the big drive shaft is not bent and the splines are good I wouldnt worry about the rust.
 
Thanks. But can we replace the rubber on the driveline or do we have to get a new one? And yes the wear ring is a little bit turn up with nothing up in it. Are the neoprene seals the wear ring? And what is a needle bearing and warper is it located and what is it's jib?
 
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