Running seadoo out of water

[rdfish1]

As a boater, I am used to being careful not to run the outboard without water but noticed seadoo owners run them at the ramp to purge water. I guess the cooling system is closed like a car w a radiator so the overheating doesn't occur. Is it ok to run the 4tec for 10-15 min if u r working on it. Are there any risks or side effects of running out of the water.

 

[Coastiejoe]

Closed loop or open loop, the ski will not be cooled when running out of the water. Reason why is, open loop requires the water the ski sits on to actually cool the engine via the impeller/pump. Closed loop, the ride plate is basically the radiator. The ride plate cools the antifreeze as it rides on the water.

But to answer your question, you can run it for up to a minute out of the water. This is true on or off a hose. Reason why is, the Carbon Seal is not cooled when out of the water. Also, when on a hose it is FLUSHING the engine. Meaning the water running backwards to flush things, not cool the engine.

Clear as mud?

 

[chamilton89]

10-15 seconds maybe. The engine cooling loop is closed but uses the water it sits in to remove the heat from the ride plate. Second, the exhaust and pump need to be submerged to be cooled as well.

 

[Hawk388]

I never run mine for more than 30 seconds for the reasons Coastiejoe mentioned.

 

[lightman02]

You can run it for about 2 minutes out of water on the hose, this is because the pump seal does not have any cooling when the water craft is not on the water. I usually run mine for a least a minute on the hose when flushing out salt water to make sure it get a good flush.

 

[Hawk388]

You can run it for about 2 minutes out of water on the hose, this is because the pump seal does not have any cooling when the water craft is not on the water. I usually run mine for a least a minute on the hose when flushing out salt water to make sure it get a good flush.

Just so you know, I hook up my Salt-A-Way mixer to my flush port (I use quick disconnects for everything). Start the motor and then run it until blue water comes out of the exhaust (15 seconds) then turn off the mixer and then the motor. Wait for a couple of minutes and then turn the dial to Flush on the Salt-A-Way mixer and then run the ski for another 30 seconds or so until clear water comes out. Then I hit the throttle a couple of times and shut off the mixer and then the ski.

Salt water is hard on these machines as you likely know. Using something like Salt-A-Way will greatly enhance the life of your radiator and exhaust.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

Never attempt to start a propeller operated boat out of water unless there's an adequate water supply connected and running, you will damage the seawater cooling pump in the first 3 seconds.

The cooling water supply for a jetski comes from the jet pump, it won't damage this to run dry (except in the case your jet pump is a high performance precision blueprinted racing pump).

30 seconds or even a minute of running without water is fine for a jetski but you need to flush out salt so read your instructions carefully about the proper way to flush, there's a specific startup sequence when a waterhose is involved.

 

[rdfish1]

Got it, very helpful, thank you

 

[Sea Dood]

There is a lot of bad/confusing/contradictory information in this thread. Just for clarification, the 4TEC engines have two separate cooling systems. The engine itself is closed-loop cooled, using antifreeze, with the ride-plate used as the heat-exchanger to the water. It takes a pretty long time running our of the water before the engine will overheat. The second cooling system is the exhaust ( and intercooler on SC models) cooling system which is open-loop, fed by the jet pump while in-water, and the hose port when out of water. Unlike the engine, if you don't feed water to this system, it will overheat the exhaust system in a matter of seconds, not minutes as others have implied.

Separate is the carbon seal, which shouldn't be run out of water without cooling for more than maybe 5 minutes.

I have run 4tecs out of water for a much longer time, up to an hour, by simply rigging up a hose spray to spray both the ride plate and carbon seal from below. I use this setup to run the engine in the fall even for a 5 minute run before changing oil, as I personally don't like running for any length of time without cooling the carbon seal.(for this purpose, I don't spray the ride plate as I want it to warm up fast.)

As a side note, the new 1603 ACE engine in the 300HP skis has another open-loop engine heat exchanger.

 

[lamajama]

So...why do dealers run these 4tecs for 4-5 min on a hose) in order to do an oil change? Seen a dealer the other day doing this.

Note: The above post does answer some of the question....

 

[Coastiejoe]

So...why do dealers run these 4tecs for 4-5 min on a hose) in order to do an oil change? Seen a dealer the other day doing this.

Note: The above post does answer some of the question....

So that they can sell you a new Carbon Seal next.....

Officially, they can run 4-5 minutes. But is is hard on the CS. There really is no need to do so though..

 

[lamajama]

So that they can sell you a new Carbon Seal next.....

Officially, they can run 4-5 minutes. But is is hard on the CS. There really is no need to do so though..

I understand but then how does the oil get warmed up prior to changing it?

 

[Coastiejoe]

I understand but then how does the oil get warmed up prior to changing it?

That is why they run it for 5 minutes,, to get it warm.

Many do not run it at all. There is a procedure on how to crank the 4-tec and it will get more oil to the pan. I change my oil after a day of running. I run all day, come home and clean them top to bottom and the engine is still very warm. Change the oil then.

 

[makaveli]

Stumbled upon this thread via google search....and This is not good news...so How the heck do i test my Supercharged 4tec Speedster while its out of the water to see if I got all the debris out of my prop ordeal?....Seems to be alot of mixed info. The info saying my intercooled supercharger will suffer in seconds out of water is the scariest...

 

[greenhornet2]

Stumbled upon this thread via google search....and This is not good news...so How the heck do i test my Supercharged 4tec Speedster while its out of the water to see if I got all the debris out of my prop ordeal?....Seems to be alot of mixed info. The info saying my intercooled supercharger will suffer in seconds out of water is the scariest...

Do you have a hose flush port on it? If so they you should be safe to run for about 2 minutes while running water through the flush port. I don't know the speedster model specifically but the owners manual should also tell you.