FishOrSkiCantDecide
Member
Had boats for many years, but never a ski...then I got a '96 GSX (for free!) about two years ago. Decided to do about a 75% resto since it was kept outside, no cover, for a good eight years. Everything was in pretty darn good shape, considering. Cleaned it all up and pulled the engine. Not sure how, but the PTO piston lost a piece of ring and was seized. Got it unstuck and pulled the top end apart. Scoring was substantial, wound up boring the maximum 1.5mm over. Put it all back together, compression and leak tests good (nearly 155psi on both cylinders). Since I had almost everything out, replaced the Tempo lines and fuel selector and rebuilt the carbs with genuine Mikuni parts. Needles looked brand new, seat and jets, too. No green goo anywhere except the outside edges of the nipples. Mag side carb filter was clean, PTO side was nearly full of gunk (not green goo, something else...looked like black sand). Both pop offs set at 34psi, held 10psi well over 5 minutes, so everything seemed great, adjustment screws to factory settings (L-1, H-0). All of these things were suggestions I read here and obviously instructions in the manual...but of course that only goes so far as well.
So at this point, I cross my fingers and hit the start switch. Cranks right up! (had primed both the new fuel lines and the oil injection system...50:1 in the fuel tank, full oil res) But then the headache...starts idling really rough, feeling like one cylinder is missing. Didn't want to throttle it much since I need to do break-in first, but giving it any throttle at all seems like it kills one cylinder, which comes back when you let off. Wet plugs, and even the slightest choke kills it, so I'm thinking it's running rich. Everything in the ski is stock except the pistons, but everything has been gone over with a fine-tooth comb and everything works (except the beeper). It really seems like the ONLY thing different is everything is clean and lubed...so carb settings/jetting is about the only thing left that might need to be different due to the bore job...yes? If so, what would those be...if not, what else do I check? It doesn't die if I run the low screws in all the way, just seems to run hotter. (oh yeah, and runs the same with or without the air box...but does run better right before it dies when I shut the selector valve) About to lose my mind...tactical fighter jets were easier to figure out than this!
So at this point, I cross my fingers and hit the start switch. Cranks right up! (had primed both the new fuel lines and the oil injection system...50:1 in the fuel tank, full oil res) But then the headache...starts idling really rough, feeling like one cylinder is missing. Didn't want to throttle it much since I need to do break-in first, but giving it any throttle at all seems like it kills one cylinder, which comes back when you let off. Wet plugs, and even the slightest choke kills it, so I'm thinking it's running rich. Everything in the ski is stock except the pistons, but everything has been gone over with a fine-tooth comb and everything works (except the beeper). It really seems like the ONLY thing different is everything is clean and lubed...so carb settings/jetting is about the only thing left that might need to be different due to the bore job...yes? If so, what would those be...if not, what else do I check? It doesn't die if I run the low screws in all the way, just seems to run hotter. (oh yeah, and runs the same with or without the air box...but does run better right before it dies when I shut the selector valve) About to lose my mind...tactical fighter jets were easier to figure out than this!
