2 stroke to 4 stroke Upgrade

[enut]

I have a 1997 challenger, 787 110 hp 2-stroke boat.
Just a small amount of weeds tends to bring the boat to a crawl(this happens pretty easily and almost everytime I take my boat out), with no weeds it easily goes 35+ mph (according to it's speedometer).

If I were to upgrade to a 2006 or newer Challenger 180 or Challerner 180SE, would I still have this problem?

Has anyone on this forum had one of the older vintage boats and upgraded to the newer boats.

I am assuming that I am not the only one to have this problem with my boat.
Thanks

 

[frpole]

Weeds are sucked into the jet pump via the intake grate. I had a 2004 Sportster with the 130hp 2 stroke engine and just recently moved up to a 2006 Challenger 180 CS. The river I run in has a lot of weeds and several times the grate would plug up with weeds to the point that the engine would overheat because the cooling system on the Sportster takes in water from the river. I'd have to shut off the engine, jump out of the boat, reach under and pull the weed clumps from the grate, wait a few minutes and restart it. There's two big advantages to the 4 Stroke and in particular to the 2006 Challenger 180. First off, they have a closed loop cooling system and therefore do not use external water to cool the engine, although they still use some water for the exhaust. The second is that they have an ICS (Inlet Clearing System), switch which works by lowering the grate thus allowing any weeds to fall off, before the grate closes. I ran in the same river last weekend and the 06 Challenger had no problems. I do know that they only had the ICS for a few years on the Challenger 180, then they stopped it, but cant tell you why.

 

[Gamerse]

About the ICS http://seadoosportboats.com/topic/1966-ics-issue/ I hate to refer to other forums, but there is alot of experience and pro knowledge there.

A jet is a jet, regardless of 2 or 4 stroke. The pumps are not that bigger, and even then, are still subject to clogging. See this guys recent issue with weeds, and an overheat code he was unaware of. http://www.seadooforum.com/showthread.php?22303-Clearing-weeds-.-Good-advice

When TN had a weed problem from drought and heat, I just hammered through them as fast as I could. If the gamble didn't pay off, I had to swim with the shad in the nasty mess.

Prop boats have the same issue eventually, the weeds gather on the front of the lower gearbox. When the prop moves more water than it can pull past the lower gear box, it aerates the prop, and the boat goes nowhere fast. The advantage does go to the prop boats, they can reverse and push everything off. Once your stuck in a big patch though, you end up reversing over and over untill you get out. Weeds cause outboards to overheat as well, once they gather, they cover the water inlets, it doesn't help that the prop starts churning air into the water.

So, if you are brave, you do have an option, go to a scoop grate with no grill, or cut yours out. Then install a stainless solas impeller or similar. My brother's ZXI has a single bar grate, we installed a stainless impeller the year before. When the weeds came during the drought, we plowed through them. It just sucked them up, and spit them out.

:cheers:
Ernest