97 speedster cylinder head cover question

[filthyoar]

Was cleaning my boat today and decided to hook it up to a hose and run the engines a bit to flush some clean water through. When i hooked up the hose to my port engine and started it then turned on the water I noticed water spraying around from under the cyclinder head cover. At least I think that is what that part was called. Is there a gasket on the cover that may have gone bad? If so is it fairly easy to change out? What other problems could this signify?

If it is needed I can snap a couple photos of it tomorrow just to make sure that I am talking about the right part.

Once again I am struck by the curse of boat problems right when warm weather starts showing up .

 

[robin savell lloyd]

I have read about this in the past month it sounds like you need a new head gasket or [seal]. good luck.

 

[Gunsrunner]

Hi filthyoar,
changing head cover gasket not that hard, you will need a torque wrench to do the head bolts back up, make sure you do them in sequence and in several stages.
there are some o-rings between the cover and head around spark plugs that should be replaced while your at it, also get something like salt away to clean the parts while there off.
These are pretty easy motors to work on, but be careful of corrosion on bolts, most on the forum members use PB Blaster for loosening bolts with corrosion!
PS: threadlock is a must.

 

[kustomkarl]

:agree: If you get in a jam we are here to help you. You will need a torque wrench and some metric tools to remove the head. If you decide to do it yourself we'll point you in the right direction.

Karl

 

[filthyoar]

thank you all for such quick answers. I have the metric tools already. Will go grab a torque wrench today. Are there any recommendations on places to buy sea doo parts from? I live in middle of Illinois and the only things around me are corn fields. Have to do most part buying online.

 

[kustomkarl]

Here is a vendor that is available on line for your parts. They seem to be reasonable
;http://www.babbittsonline.com/pages/parts/viewbybrand/default.aspx

Keep us posted.

Karl

 

[filthyoar]

update

Well, I decided I would take the speedster to a shop a little ways away from me. Turns out the water was spraying from a small crack in the cylinder. Did some research and talked to a local guy and he suggested trying some Marine-Tex to patch the small crack. He said he has used it on car engines and used it on his boat generator block and has had very good success with it. The shop did the spring tune up and the compression on all 4 checks was 135-140 psi so i was quite happy to hear that. Figure before I go out and spend 400 bucks on a new cylinder would just try and patch it. Both engines run very well just the water spraying which I know would just get worse without a patch.

They also stated I would need a welder to fix a corroded freeze plug? No idea where to find the freeze plugs on the engines. Does anyone happen to have a photo of where I can find these on a 97 speedster?

Also I noticed that on the left engine around the exhaust it was a little sooty. Any significance to this?

Well, off to buy some Marine-Tex and a new cylinder gasket set and hopefullywill get this thing on the water for Memorial Day. Thanks once again for all help and if anyone has any other thoughts please feel free to let me know.

Edit: Forgot to also ask. In the manual section I didnt see a 1997 shop manual. Is the 96 shop manual more or less the same?

 

[kustomkarl]

If you look at the tuned exhaust, you 'll see a couple round plugs. They are notoirious for pin holes that leak. You could try the Marine-Tex or get it welded by a aluminum welding shop, paint it and your good to go. The sooty stuff is just exhaust that's built up. Nothing to worry about.

Karl

 

[filthyoar]

I hate to sound like a complete moron but where are the tuned exhaust? I am a horrible but slowly learning engine guy. I have looked everywhere I could think of but could not find what I would imagine were the freeze plugs? I figured they would be easy to spot since the sea doo dealership stated they were frozen over and needed a welder.

 

[Gunsrunner]

plugs

here's a pic to help, you will feel like a dill when i show you, but we all started somewhere, read heaps it helps!!

In the purple pipe, see the round weld mark with the scratch in the plug! you can see 2 of the plugs in this photo.
There are 4 of these plugs in each tuned pipe!

 

[kustomkarl]

A picture is worth a thousand posts... good job!

Karl