chariotdriver
New Member
Sorry for the long post. I hope who ever reads it finds it worth it.
I learned something today and I hope I can prevent a little grief on a fellow ski rider.
I was riding my 96 GSX I've had since new and it still runs like a top. After about an hour of zipping around it totally bogged down and had almost zero power in addition to sounding really strange. I stopped and popped off the seat and was engulfed in a cloud of exhaust. I found the rubber coupling between the muffler and the expansion chamber had a hole burned in it. I got a tow back to the dock and made a run to the marina for some more 2 inch rubber exhaust pipe. I bought a foot for 12 bucks even though I only needed 3-4 inches. ( I have a 97 GTX with basically the same set up) Got it all put back together and took off again running as it usually does. I stopped to see how my handy work was holding up only to notice the purple expansion chamber wasn't purple; it was a burnt shade of brown and it was extremely hot! I flagged another rider down for a tow back and started looking around for another issue since the rubber replacement I just put in was still intact but it had a slight soft spot now. I found the spring inside of the muffler water regulator had broken/corroded into two pieces (this component looks like a RAVE on top of the muffler). This is a pretty important part I figured out after reading my SEADOO maintenance CD. There is quite a bit of performance gained or lost out of how this valve is adjusted. You can actually change the exhaust/expansion chamber tuning by varying the amount of water injected into it. We're talking about a couple hundred RPM's worth of power. Crank the red adjuster down and it injects more water, the pipe runs cooler and it only gets to 6500 RPM instead of 7K; great for some of the clowns I let ride the thing. Bring it out 2 full turns as recommended and the exhaust gets a little warmer and I'm turning 7K as usual. I have new springs in both ski's now and when I loan them out, which happens quite a bit (300 hours on each ski) I'll be turning the exhaust RAVE down, lower RPM's and cooler exhaust can't hurt anything........Right?????
I would like to go to a pre-mix but some of the clowns that use the ski's might/most likely would screw it up. That's why I have a 96 and a 97; had two 96's until one ended up in splinters.
I learned something today and I hope I can prevent a little grief on a fellow ski rider.
I was riding my 96 GSX I've had since new and it still runs like a top. After about an hour of zipping around it totally bogged down and had almost zero power in addition to sounding really strange. I stopped and popped off the seat and was engulfed in a cloud of exhaust. I found the rubber coupling between the muffler and the expansion chamber had a hole burned in it. I got a tow back to the dock and made a run to the marina for some more 2 inch rubber exhaust pipe. I bought a foot for 12 bucks even though I only needed 3-4 inches. ( I have a 97 GTX with basically the same set up) Got it all put back together and took off again running as it usually does. I stopped to see how my handy work was holding up only to notice the purple expansion chamber wasn't purple; it was a burnt shade of brown and it was extremely hot! I flagged another rider down for a tow back and started looking around for another issue since the rubber replacement I just put in was still intact but it had a slight soft spot now. I found the spring inside of the muffler water regulator had broken/corroded into two pieces (this component looks like a RAVE on top of the muffler). This is a pretty important part I figured out after reading my SEADOO maintenance CD. There is quite a bit of performance gained or lost out of how this valve is adjusted. You can actually change the exhaust/expansion chamber tuning by varying the amount of water injected into it. We're talking about a couple hundred RPM's worth of power. Crank the red adjuster down and it injects more water, the pipe runs cooler and it only gets to 6500 RPM instead of 7K; great for some of the clowns I let ride the thing. Bring it out 2 full turns as recommended and the exhaust gets a little warmer and I'm turning 7K as usual. I have new springs in both ski's now and when I loan them out, which happens quite a bit (300 hours on each ski) I'll be turning the exhaust RAVE down, lower RPM's and cooler exhaust can't hurt anything........Right?????
I would like to go to a pre-mix but some of the clowns that use the ski's might/most likely would screw it up. That's why I have a 96 and a 97; had two 96's until one ended up in splinters.
