Hello, my name is Brad, I live in the Kawartha lakes, Ontario. This is my first post. It's crazy that this thread exists, someone in the Ontario Seadoo group on facebook sent me the link. At the ned of the 2020 summer season I paid this guy to do two rebuilds for my 1997 Seadoo GTI's. They have the 717 or 720 motor, however you refer to it. I am almost certain they came back worse than when i sent them to him. The motors were not to low on compression, 120 in both cylinder on both motors. The one motor had just blown the crank seals, and the other I figured at the time if I'm getting one rebuilt, may as well get the second rebuilt. Spring rolls around, I put the new motors in, get a shop to align them and then i put them in the water. They took forever to get started, and after all the diagnosing and having a legit marina mechanic look at them, the first motor has a cracked head which it never had before, and the welding job was so shitty it gave on the first start, so the one cylinder would constantly have water in it, compression was shit, sloppy pistons (not even the right size) and the carbs were done wrong, etc etc. The second motor has a bad crank put in it, with bearings that would barely spin, bad seals, and this was the motor that had a good bottom end originally. Compression was bad, sloppy pistons (not even the right size) and this one also had a damaged head, I cant remember what exactly was wrong with it on this motor but it was so bad that the motor wouldn't rev higher than 3500 rpm because of the amount of water getting into the piston area.
In total I paid the guy 1300 a motor, so 2600. They didn't even run a day. Never texted or called back, At the time he was driving a Gold Ford F150, and a blue mini van.
He told the same stories to me that all of you have talked about, also he may have tried to steal my Seadoo's, my neighbours told me while i was up at my cottage that someone was in front of my house in a ford truck at 2am in the morning walking around my Seadoo's.
After all that bullshit, I found a local legit mechanic recommended by friends and a few marinas. He disabled them in front of me, showing me everything that was wrong etc. He showed me all the parts that were good, or could be reused, and told me what needed to be replaced and redone, etc. I took hime a few days in his shop to rebuild both motors with the help of another mechanic. This go around I ended up paying 1650 for each motor, a total of 3300. He let me pull the motor and reinstall them myself to save on cost and make it easier for him as I can do it in about 45 mins or less, and he was on the older side, which was great because i got to learn as well. The mechanic tuned and heat cycled both motors for me, myself and girlfriend road them all season of 2021 daily and all day on weekends, probably put about 30-40 hours on both machines without one issue. And both machines show 150 compression in all cylinders, and they fire instantly every-time.
