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2004 Seadoo Sportster LE Oil injection question

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mkeough11

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I just purchased a 2004 Sportster with DI and the 947 engine. I am having a hard time getting it to run. I have cleaned the entire fuel injector system and I believe my problem might be the 2 cycle oil. I would like to clean the old oil out and put in new Seadoo xp-s 2 cycle oil. But I can not get to the oil pump. The exhaust is in the way and to take it off I have to undo a nut under the exhaust and above the air venturi's. It looks impossible to get to that nut without picking the engine up. So my question is, where does the oil lines feed into the gas? Can I remove the line from that point and let it drain or does the oil pump keep it from draining? The plugs have soot all them. I can sometimes get the motor running using choke cleaner and it will idle roughly but then die. I am afraid the previously owner used just regular 2 cycle oil. Any help with this would be appreciated. I know I can drain the oil from the filter upward, but am afraid of mixing the new oil with the old from the filter downward. So how do I clean the old oil from the filter downward without being able to get to the oil pump?
 
I just purchased a 2004 Sportster with DI and the 947 engine. I am having a hard time getting it to run. I have cleaned the entire fuel injector system and I believe my problem might be the 2 cycle oil. I would like to clean the old oil out and put in new Seadoo xp-s 2 cycle oil. But I can not get to the oil pump. The exhaust is in the way and to take it off I have to undo a nut under the exhaust and above the air venturi's. It looks impossible to get to that nut without picking the engine up. So my question is, where does the oil lines feed into the gas? Can I remove the line from that point and let it drain or does the oil pump keep it from draining? The plugs have soot all them. I can sometimes get the motor running using choke cleaner and it will idle roughly but then die. I am afraid the previously owner used just regular 2 cycle oil. Any help with this would be appreciated. I know I can drain the oil from the filter upward, but am afraid of mixing the new oil with the old from the filter downward. So how do I clean the old oil from the filter downward without being able to get to the oil pump?

How certain are you the only problem is the wrong type of oil? Regardless, I think you can manually purge a great majority of the existing oil without removing the oil pump but you need to take this project one step at a time b/c it's a task that has many parts so do your homework, to avoid expensive mistakes and extra time.

The first thing you should do is perform a cylinder compression test (~130psi), and please consider the condition of the fuel system, excessive soot on the spark plugs sounds like you may need to replace the fuel injectors and flush the entire fuel system, change all the fuel filters, etc. Besides, I agree, you should use the correct XPS-II oil or risk fate.

Expect a learning curve, unfortunately the DI system isn't exactly newbee friendly and I suspect your boat has been neglected as most have, thus I think you should take your time and go slowly. I suggest you locate a copy of the latest shop manual for the XP-DI 947 jet ski which uses the same engine and fuel system and immerse yourself into it, it will become your friend. I have not found any copies of shop manuals for the later sportster LE boats, I reference the ski manuals b/c they are nearly identical aside from the chromed hubcaps and funny steering wheels.
 
I agree with taking it one step at a time. That is why I want to clean the old oil out. I have taken the fuel pump out and cleaned it, drained the old gas, taken the fuel injectors out and cleaned them the best I could and cleaned the rail system and also took the rave valves out and cleaned them. I did not take the air injectors out as I was afraid they would not go back in without the special tool. Now I want to eliminate the old oil. So I am looking for the best way to do it without getting to the oil pump. Unless their is a trick to getting that one nut off under the exhaust. I am not sure what is wrong, so I am trying to eliminate things. Since I am not sure what oil is in the tank, I want that oil out of the system. I do have a shop manual for this boat. But it just tells me to use the bleed screw on the oil pump. But I can't get to it. So if I just clean the oil tank and oil filter and then put new oil in, how long will it take to use the old oil from the filter down and in the pump and in the lines to be used up and start getting the new oil? Or can I take the lines off where ever they feed into the gas, take the spark plugs out and just crank the engine over until it gets rid of the old oil?
 
I don't think you will be able to crank the motor over to purge the old oil, and you won't be able to get rid of all of the oil oil either, just some of it. I think you need to find a way to reach the oil pump bleed screw, study the drawings carefully so you'll know where it is.

The reason you need to bleed the oil pump is to remove any air bubbles in the supply line, air will interfere with the pumping action, the pump doesn't work well if there's air in the rotors.

As for the oil in the lines, you can pull them off and blow them out with a few psi of air, the DI has an oil return system from the air compressor back to the oil tank so you could temporarily reroute and catch that return oil into a temporary catch bottle as the engine runs for a few hours(or couple days) in the water so your XPS isn't contaminated by residual of old oil. This is what I'd concentrate on as opposed to attempting to purge out the old oil from all the lines.

So in summary, this is what I'd do:
1) Drain out old oil from oil tank, remove tank and wash it out, blow dry with air. On mine (carbed motor) I simply left the tank installed and poured XPS through it, wasted about a quart.
2) Replace oil strainer filter
3) Reconnect supply line to oil pump and purge air through bleed screw (I was very careful not to get air bubbles in the supply lines, so this was unnecessary)
4) Rig up a return catch can from the air pump.
5) Start ski and hold oil pump lever 1/2 of full travel position to allow high XPS-II flow rate, engine should smoke noticeably. Or you could adjust the oil cable rich(tighter) instead of trying to hold the pump lever while the engine runs(b/c it's really tough to get to pump while engine is running!), you should check the cable adjustment and realign the marks anyway, once you've finished working on the injection system. You'll need a mirror and flashlight to see what you're doing, I needed glasses too b/c the oil pump lever alignment marks are small and hard to see!

The 947 motor receives almost no oil (~ZERO) at normal idle speed, you'ld be hard pressed to measure the flow, so holding the pump lever at about 1/2 of it's travel will allow oil to flow and purge remaining air bubbles as the motor idles. Shoot some oil into the throttle body intakes if you're not sure there's enough inside to lube the motor (look for smoky exhaust = enough oil)

As far as sooty black plugs go, I'm thinking soot from excess fuel (ie:leaky fuel injectors spraying fuel into the cylinders and diluting the lube oil), or it could just be from fogging the engine with cosmolene or some other heavy amount of oil, it's hard to know.

I would avoid removing the air injectors, the carbon dams would need replacing if you removed them. Hopefully someone hasn't done this before you.

Mixing of 2-stroke oils can cause congealing, change viscosity too heavy, and stop flow, especially in the oil filter strainer, but if the tank and line is cleaned out up to the oil pump and the weather is warm, the two oils won't exist together for long, so I think the best way is by just catching the return oil from the air pump so it doesn't contaminate the XPS tank.

My carbed boat had the wrong oil in it when I brought it home but it ran fine and the plugs weren't sooted, but I'm pretty sure it was TCW-3 outboard engine oil, not some kind of indestructible cosmoline or something, so soot on plugs doesn't add up in my mind unless someone oiled the heck out of it, in which case it will take some time to burn it all out.

At some point the rubber oil lines from the oil pump to the bottom of the intake manifold and air pump oil supply should be changed b/c they do rot over time and if they crack or leak the motor could be starved of oil. The rubber material is Tygon F-4040-A, 3/32 id

I don't think you'll be able to completely purge the oil trapped in the air pump crankcase, it'll take a bit of time for that oil to work it's way out of there.

Hopefully some of these ideas help.
 
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