purple pipe sprung a leak, vts quit working.

[crowemountain]

hi all,

1995 xp 800 purple head pipe on top of motor sprung a pinhole sized leak, but managed to fill hull partially before i discovered it. i discovered it because the vts quit working.

2 questions:

what do i look for to get vts back online?

can the "purple head pipe" be welded reliably, or do i need to replace it and if so where do i get one reasonably?

HELP!

 

[seadoosnipe]

Exhaust....

You'd cry if you saw the price of these exhaust pipes. Yours popped a hole like my 1997 did. Where your water crosses the head, it goes into the exhaust pipe where it circles through a water jacket to preheat the water before it enters the engine.

I removed mine at the big "O" ring and the 4 bolts that connect it to the exhaust manifold and used my dremel tool to grind it out, till I knew there was no more soft spots. By the time I was finished, the hole was the size of a nickel, so I put a piece of aluminum screen over it and used the strongest JB weld I could get from "Autozone".

It's been running great, with no leaks since. And that's through putting it through the paces jumping and landing hard on top of some good size swells in the bay.

The VTS, if you open it up and let it all dry out, it may be o.k. Check your fuse on it. These systems are normally sealed from water, so it may be nothing more than the fuse.

 

[crowemountain]

so what caused this hole to erupt? bad design? age? cruddy water? freezing?

 

[seadoosnipe]

age.....

The age of the ski.

Seadoo is notorious for aluminum oxide build up due to the amount of stainless making contact with aluminum and only one sacrificial anode.

I think the positive and negative ions of the water may have an effect. As water is heated, the positive charged ions leach out of the water and into the aluminum and over time, causes the deteriation. I'm no scientist but seems it's common for the exhaust systems from about 1998 and older. I do maintain and test water for a steam generation plant, so, I think there may be some merit to that idea. When you open the hole up, your gonna see a white powdery crystalline stuff. That's the aluminum oxide.

If and when you take off that section, which is the section that is double walled, exhaust inside with the water jacket circulating around it. The pinholes usually develop on the round knobby looking areas, which I think are created from manafacturing the inside part and is where the two areas (water and exhaust) are the thinnest. Make sure you tap around on the pipe to check the integrity. I started off with one leak. By the time I finished, there was a total of 3 holes, if I'm not mistaken. Only one was the size of my thumb, the other 2 much smaller.

Good luck.......:cheers: