:thumbsup: Luckily I was finally able to get my rebuilt 951 installed and broken in during this beautiful Memorial Day Weekend.
Quick background. I purchased my first boat last August an 02 Sportster LE. To properly welcome me into the wonderful world of Jet Boats, I had the joy of rebuilding pump after ingesting some rocks from a shallow rock bar in my first week of ownership :facepalm:. Everything was looking good from that point until after week number six when my crank had an unfortunate battle with a seized up counterbalancer. :willy_nilly:. Fortunately (if you can find the bright spot in a toasted engine) I was at the end of the season here in New Hampshire anyway, so I had some time to prepare my plan for getting it back on the water for next season.
I read a ton of hours worth of reading here on Seadooforum regarding the likely cause of my motor carnage. I narrowed down the likely culprit to being the counterbalancer, as when I removed the head the pistons were not seized and no sign of damage from bad rings or blow by. Being mechanically inclined I inventoried the parts necessary for a rebuild and the time needed to do the rebuild. I soon found out that with my ever shrinking free time, and the overall cost to source the proper parts and tools for rebuild, it would be best to invest my free time else where. This lead me to follow the reviews here on the forums, and after viewing generally positive reviews regarding build quality and parts used I chose the Sea Doo Engine Shop.
I called and talked to Tom about some questions I had and we established a time line for my rebuild. I purchased the 2 year no -fault premium rebuild. He said it would take between 4-6 weeks for delivery depending on parts availability and how trashed the crank was. I sent the motor in late february and recieved it in the first week of April, and boy did it look good. Everything looked in order and Tom confirmed my suspicions regarding the balancer shaft grenading my engine.
Needless to say between inclement weather, and general life duties I was not able to reinstall the engine until this last week. It really was a shame to mount my dirty manifold and accessories onto this nice looking block, but alas time was of the essence. It was going to be in the 80's all weekend!! I used SBT's Alignment Kit and replaced the mounts as the two side mounts were nearly useless and moments away from failure. I also replaced the oil injection lines with Tygon for peace of mind. All my fuel hoses had the tempo lines replaced by the PO.
Now it is time for the water!! I tried to siphon out as much of the old gas from the tank as possible. The gas probably would have been fine as I always use marine stabil in all of my equipment and motorcycles, plus I have the added bonus of Ethanol Free Premium fuel just minutes from my house, but I wanted to be as safe as possible. I refueled with about a 45:1 Premix ratio and primed the oil injection lines. The engine started just as soon as the gas made it into the carbs, and Idled around 2800 on the trailer. It did provide quite the smoke show to:blush:. I took it to the lake and over the last 3 days I have worked through about 15 gallons of gas. I used the break in methods described in various threads here where you go 20% 50% etc and constant variation of throttle input. Engine has not missed a beat and pulls really well. I have not gone full out to test top speed with GPS but I can see no reason why it should not be at my prior best of 49mph (with a tail wind
).
I have not done a compression test yet, but will probably do in the next week or so when I change out the dirty plugs from my premix / injection oil break in. I will let you all know the results, but I am confident that I will find appropriate results.
So to summarize, my review of the Sea Doo Engine shop is a positive one. The engine so far appears to be well done, and the time line was met. I know that this time line may not work for everyone, but I had the winter season to complete my project. I was also keen on retaining the original block as it was never a saltwater boat, so I was able to keep my block and found that Tom has been helpful with the few questions I have had since receiving my engine and working through the installation. If I ever have the need for a rebuild I will use the Sea Doo Engine shop for sure.
Happy Boating!
Quick background. I purchased my first boat last August an 02 Sportster LE. To properly welcome me into the wonderful world of Jet Boats, I had the joy of rebuilding pump after ingesting some rocks from a shallow rock bar in my first week of ownership :facepalm:. Everything was looking good from that point until after week number six when my crank had an unfortunate battle with a seized up counterbalancer. :willy_nilly:. Fortunately (if you can find the bright spot in a toasted engine) I was at the end of the season here in New Hampshire anyway, so I had some time to prepare my plan for getting it back on the water for next season.
I read a ton of hours worth of reading here on Seadooforum regarding the likely cause of my motor carnage. I narrowed down the likely culprit to being the counterbalancer, as when I removed the head the pistons were not seized and no sign of damage from bad rings or blow by. Being mechanically inclined I inventoried the parts necessary for a rebuild and the time needed to do the rebuild. I soon found out that with my ever shrinking free time, and the overall cost to source the proper parts and tools for rebuild, it would be best to invest my free time else where. This lead me to follow the reviews here on the forums, and after viewing generally positive reviews regarding build quality and parts used I chose the Sea Doo Engine Shop.
I called and talked to Tom about some questions I had and we established a time line for my rebuild. I purchased the 2 year no -fault premium rebuild. He said it would take between 4-6 weeks for delivery depending on parts availability and how trashed the crank was. I sent the motor in late february and recieved it in the first week of April, and boy did it look good. Everything looked in order and Tom confirmed my suspicions regarding the balancer shaft grenading my engine.
Needless to say between inclement weather, and general life duties I was not able to reinstall the engine until this last week. It really was a shame to mount my dirty manifold and accessories onto this nice looking block, but alas time was of the essence. It was going to be in the 80's all weekend!! I used SBT's Alignment Kit and replaced the mounts as the two side mounts were nearly useless and moments away from failure. I also replaced the oil injection lines with Tygon for peace of mind. All my fuel hoses had the tempo lines replaced by the PO.
Now it is time for the water!! I tried to siphon out as much of the old gas from the tank as possible. The gas probably would have been fine as I always use marine stabil in all of my equipment and motorcycles, plus I have the added bonus of Ethanol Free Premium fuel just minutes from my house, but I wanted to be as safe as possible. I refueled with about a 45:1 Premix ratio and primed the oil injection lines. The engine started just as soon as the gas made it into the carbs, and Idled around 2800 on the trailer. It did provide quite the smoke show to:blush:. I took it to the lake and over the last 3 days I have worked through about 15 gallons of gas. I used the break in methods described in various threads here where you go 20% 50% etc and constant variation of throttle input. Engine has not missed a beat and pulls really well. I have not gone full out to test top speed with GPS but I can see no reason why it should not be at my prior best of 49mph (with a tail wind
). I have not done a compression test yet, but will probably do in the next week or so when I change out the dirty plugs from my premix / injection oil break in. I will let you all know the results, but I am confident that I will find appropriate results.
So to summarize, my review of the Sea Doo Engine shop is a positive one. The engine so far appears to be well done, and the time line was met. I know that this time line may not work for everyone, but I had the winter season to complete my project. I was also keen on retaining the original block as it was never a saltwater boat, so I was able to keep my block and found that Tom has been helpful with the few questions I have had since receiving my engine and working through the installation. If I ever have the need for a rebuild I will use the Sea Doo Engine shop for sure.
Happy Boating!
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