2006 Challenger Reconstruction

[xintersecty]

Alignment was easy using the tool. It was on rainy crappy day and I had to be super careful climbing on/off the boat.
Here is the oil filter (see how clean! ) before the cap goes on


All the electronics back on and fuel rail.


There is a lot of sensors on this boat and a lot of connectors. The biggest pain is the ground connectors. They are under the oil fill and use a 10mm bolt. It's hard to see and maneuver there. It took me a good thirty minutes to do three bolts.


Once I got the battery in the boat, the engine electronics would power but not the front console nor bilge pumps. I finally figure out what was wrong. The ground connector to the batter for the secondary electronics had fallen deep in the boat and I had missed it. Put that back on and my secondary bilge pump fired right up. However I will have to reroute the drain and electrical cable. They do not fit under the exhaust.

 

[rcguy]

Bravo...great job!!!!

 

[Eclipse1701d]

Very happy for you! It's been a long time coming...

 

[cheappc]

Congrats man been following your progress! Beautiful job

 

[xintersecty]

When I ran my engine, I did it without the drive shaft in the boat. (I paid for it too, leaked about a quart of oil right out the PTO.) I got the drive shaft in the boat, the pump temporally mounted, and water going for intercooler and exhaust cooling. I had a mud dobber make babies clogging the hot water exhaust. Cleaned that out.

Here is a picture of the debris trapped in the filter from the first run cleaning the out the system using the hose.


Making progress.

 

[xintersecty]

Getting closer. I have very few things left to do

1) finish cleaning
2) install the c clip for the carbon ring, my homemade tool finally busted, ordered the official seadoo tool
3) redo new rear bilge pump. I need to reroute the electric and water line

Here is the latest pictures.
Cleaned up the pump area and put on a new exhaust nut.

It was really dirty from the exhaust. Maybe it did that right before the rod busted as normally it burns clean.

Cleaned up the hinges for the engine cover. And got that installed.


The pump is on and it's details, details, and more details.

 

[topcow]

Congratulations! Great post! Well done!

 

[Premix]

Have you considered adding siphon bailer lines to keep your bilge dry without an electric pump? I hate the idea of relying on a single electric pump when out on the water. Automatic electric pumps are good when leaving your boat in the water overnight.

 

[xintersecty]

I had to remount my second electric pump. I just used it. I knew there was rain coming and I have my boat ready to go into the water AND at 3:00 am it started. So I am waiting on a lull to get it to my dock and on the lift. The second pump worked great as it can get the water out when the bow is up and forward pump does not do a damn thing.

So explain for about your idea: siphon bailer lines. I saw a couple of designs and nothing that I could see that would work on my boat.

 

[xintersecty]

With the rain all day and I could not stand it any more. I took it the landing and put it in the water. I tested a bit near the landing and gave it a kick. It seemed ok. So I opened it up and had a engine problem as soon as I went around the bend. The bottom hose from the header to the J-pipe came off. I docked at somebody's dock and figured out the issue.

The owners were very kind and loaned me a screwdriver. I got it fixed and went on my way home.

I feel like she does not have the power as she should.
I feel a lot of cavatation and I have to spool her up to speed.
I am super hesitant to bring her back off of power as it seems to surge.

Oh my, I have my teething problems. She is at home dock and I am happy.

 

[rcguy]

You have a few bugs to work out...I'm sure the boat will be just fine.

 

[xintersecty]

Ran the boat today and took GF to the Tiki Hut for breakfast on Lake Keowee. Breakfast was terrible our waitress was great and she did her best while the kitchen did their lamest.

So it feels like it's not the holding a good speed in the lower RPM range. Unfortunately my RPM gauge is totally a mess. The original never worked (I swear this boat was dunked at one time or an other). I bought a replacement Faria Gauge and I could never get it to read right. I bet they used special FW for the 3 cylinder seadoos. So I might have to take a multi-meter to it and use that to check idle rpm against candoo. Tie the boat down and run it up/down on the speed.

I have to solaris prop on it (I forget the pitch numbers) that is meant for the Challenger. Compare the takeoff on the Challenger to my RXT jetski, I feel like the pump has no bite at all. I am tempted to run it for a while and go back to my original prop.

 

[pete63]

Ran the boat today and took GF to the Tiki Hut for breakfast on Lake Keowee. Breakfast was terrible our waitress was great and she did her best while the kitchen did their lamest.

So it feels like it's not the holding a good speed in the lower RPM range. Unfortunately my RPM gauge is totally a mess. The original never worked (I swear this boat was dunked at one time or an other). I bought a replacement Faria Gauge and I could never get it to read right. I bet they used special FW for the 3 cylinder seadoos. So I might have to take a multi-meter to it and use that to check idle rpm against candoo. Tie the boat down and run it up/down on the speed.

I have to solaris prop on it (I forget the pitch numbers) that is meant for the Challenger. Compare the takeoff on the Challenger to my RXT jetski, I feel like the pump has no bite at all. I am tempted to run it for a while and go back to my original prop.

sounds like a type of slight cavitation?
carbon seal or wear ring, just thinking with the realigned engine and shaft?
what about that nozzle pitch? is it down?

 

[rcguy]

I installed a new wear ring and Solas SRX-CD-14/19 last summer and my RPM's are 7780 and GPS at 45 mph with full gas and my GF and me aboard. Those numbers were from yesterday with the exact numbers as last summer. My nozzle pitch is in the up position. I believe you have the same Solas impeller as I have. I know my impeller pitch because I put my original impeller in the Solas box. Unfortunately the original impeller has no stamp as to the pitch. At idle the rpm gauge bounces around between 1760 and 1840 with no discernible engine noise pitch.... so I believe the idle is constant and the Seadoo rpm gauge is not accurate. So the top end of 7780 is also not accurate but the GPS of 45 mph is spot on. The Seadoo gas gauge and the Seadoo speedometer are also not accurate.

I know if your engine and driveshaft are not aligned perfectly (within thousandths of an inch) you will lose performance and cause the wear ring to prematurely fail perhaps within a few minutes of your first test drive. That would be the first thing I would check.

 

[xintersecty]

Nozzle pitch is up. Carbon ring and seal are new the season before. Engine alignment could be off. Ran it a second time last yesterday. It did a bit better. I had a bit of a traffic problem that resulted a Jame Bond style wake jump. Kinda fun and scary all at once.

I live in a narrow channel that ski boats and skiers often travel. I was far right on the channel about to make left turn. I had a ski boat dead ahead who turn starboard (right) into my parallel mode of travel. They were far left of their channel. It was a wake boat with a wake boarder with the deeper wake.

So once the skier past my boat I turned left into the wake. I yelled to GF and said "This is going to be rough." I underestimated that. I put my challenger into the air and flew. Hit the second side of the wake and went airborne again. (When the motor goes high rev, you're airborne!) After that I think the motor did slightly better. At least gave me the confidence to keep going.

I really do need to put candoo and reset the throttle body and give a health check. It's still needs a bit of throttle for warm up otherwise the engine shuts down at idle (really a tad more). After that it's good.

 

[pete63]

Nozzle pitch is up. Carbon ring and seal are new the season before. Engine alignment could be off. Ran it a second time last yesterday. It did a bit better. I had a bit of a traffic problem that resulted a Jame Bond style wake jump. Kinda fun and scary all at once.

I live in a narrow channel that ski boats and skiers often travel. I was far right on the channel about to make left turn. I had a ski boat dead ahead who turn starboard (right) into my parallel mode of travel. They were far left of their channel. It was a wake boat with a wake boarder with the deeper wake.

So once the skier past my boat I turned left into the wake. I yelled to GF and said "This is going to be rough." I underestimated that. I put my challenger into the air and flew. Hit the second side of the wake and went airborne again. (When the motor goes high rev, you're airborne!) After that I think the motor did slightly better. At least gave me the confidence to keep going.

I really do need to put candoo and reset the throttle body and give a health check. It's still needs a bit of throttle for warm up otherwise the engine shuts down at idle (really a tad more). After that it's good.

that would have rattled all the bones. lol

a heavier boat i would try nozzle down for get better up on plane and acceleration.

 

[xintersecty]

Here are some updates on fixes. I had replaced the seal under the windshield when I got the boat. I used a cheap foam seal from a hardware store that was crap. Basically after a season it was turning into dirt.

I pulled of the windshield


I pulled off the old seal and cleaned the glue residue with Goo Gone.


I then used this material that I got from the auto store. This is the right stuff as it take the heat.

 

[Mudnman]

Dang it's been awhile sence I checked out your progress,months! Great job! Main thing was you made it to the tiki bar not that the food sucked.lol. I think I'm pulling my motor in dec.New bearings,crank,valves and maybe oil pumps.New jet pump/housing.And what ever else that comes up.Maybe a motor core swap?
Freakin hollow valves!

 

[xintersecty]

Mudnman, here is the stuff I learned. These are not cheap motors. Since you have the same boat and possible the 2005 motor (the boats used older motors), I almost recommend that you call Riva and buy an exchange. That would about just about 5K and then you can get 1K back in exchange. I did that as I got a new supercharger with the long block.

So if you are hankering to do a rebuild, it's not bad just tedious. Yes on new bearings and oil pumps. No on crank and pistons considering a lot of us have relatively little hours on the motors. I had a 116 hours when the motor went.

Why a new pump? That is a serious job and should be done (if needed) when do pull the motor. Too much stuff in the way. My pump has issues and I think it's a combination of alignment and the vanes need cleaning up.

I kept my old motor and will be parting it out. I am planning to rebuild and clean up my old head (replace the valves) and I will be selling that once I am done with it.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

xintercity, You mentioned it doesn't seem to idle well, is it possible to accidentally cross a couple of sensor connectors (such as exhaust temp and engine temp for instance) on those? On 951DI it's easy to do that.

I recall several times the throttle position potentiometers were found defective, the resistance film tends to flake off from the substrate. I recommend using an analog ohm or voltmeter to find potentiometer dead spots(V or Ohm. depending on which seems easiest, I guess Ohms probably).

 

[pete63]

Dang it's been awhile sence I checked out your progress,months! Great job! Main thing was you made it to the tiki bar not that the food sucked.lol. I think I'm pulling my motor in dec.New bearings,crank,valves and maybe oil pumps.New jet pump/housing.And what ever else that comes up.Maybe a motor core swap?
Freakin hollow valves!

dont forget this major over haul wasnt from hollow valves but bottom end of the engine.......
if my memory is correct, maybe because of drive shaft / end bumper?

any way great job done by xinctersecty, more brave than most of us.....

 

[Mudnman]

Yes I remember.Too many hollow valve issues to not change mine,05 motor.That and who knows how much it sat with fuel in oil,possible ethanol gas.New pump because I cracked a flange on the case changing bearing.Duh me!

 

[xintersecty]

Guys, I want to say thanks for all the nice compliments. I really do appreciate them.

pete63, yeah that was a possibility of the drive shaft and end bumper. Piston number one rod came loose and tore the hell out of the bottom end.

sportster, yeah that's good advice, I will get out a volt meter and check the resistance values. I may even plot the values as I have a serial volt-meter. That might be worth it.

mudnman, sorry to hear about your pump. Do call Riva and price out a long block before you go down the road of a rebuild. You can take pictures of the sides and check out just how much corrosion has got to your motor. Mine was pretty bad.

Yeah I may have made mistakes in servicing my own boat (now I use a torque wrench and go by the numbers) but I swear that the lack of maintenance and poor treatment took out my motor. Considering the amount of HP these motors put out they are really are remarkable motors even considering the bad design choices by BRP