Well, to be honest the engine has been out for about a month but I am too slow on this blog thing but good for you I am even slower on the Seadoo project. So I checked for air leaks and there were none so all indications were that the engine was fine and ready to be reinstalled.
Now to give you some background I have grown up watching my uncle Gary fix about anything and he would never rest until every part was checked and fixed almost to obsession so something must have rubbed off. So the squish was within spec but not within what the performance spec was so this got me thinking. FYI: the squish is the little bit of clearance between the top of the piston and the cylinder head at the outer edge. This creates turbulence that helps mix the air and fuel mixture during compression and just before ignition for a complete burn of the air/fuel mixture. Too much squish clearance and the engine is not as efficient and incomplete combustion but too little will cause too much heat and pre-ignition, also bad. So long story short seadoo had some big manufacturing tolerances and makes 5 different cylinder base gaskets to adjust squish and marks it with holes in the gasket. Mine had 6 holes for 0.6mm and my ideal squish needed a 0.3-0.4mm gasket. So to be safe I started to think I should change the gasket from the 6 hole to 4 hole.
Yes, I decided to take the engine completely apart for inspection and new gaskets and seals. And, the engine had never been apart, woohoo nobody had messed with it! All was going good until I had to remove the PTO (Power Take Off), Seadoo thinks these are snowmobiles. I could not get it by hand so I went an bought the most expensive Ingersol Rand impact wit 700 ft/lbs of torque and...... Nothing, didn't even move. I had to get the breaker bar and the 3' jack handle and a lot of heat to get it off.
So everything went smooth from there but I am glad I took it apart. The cylinders look great and they even have the crosshatch from the factory so I would guess that this engine has very few hours on it. Score! But the pistons had a few lines on them. My guess is that there was a little surface rust on the cylinders or some carbon because the previous owner did not use the correct oil and when I checked the compression and started it briefly it left some marks on the piston.
If I was going to sell the ski I would just wet sand the piston lines and put it back together but I think she is going to be a keeper so I ordered new OEM pistons and rings just to be safe.
Here is one of the cylinders and the piston cleaned up but I would always be worried about it.
Here are the cases ready to be cleaned.
And here is the......... Wait! that is not a Seadoo cylinder, guess you will have to wait for that project Brian Sr. BTW: it is from 1978 just to keep you guessing.
So all threads are cleaned and all parts will hit the solvent for a good clean and then wait for parts to arrive.
Here are some shots of the hull that will get a good cleaning and buff.
All stripped and ready for some wet sanding and buffing. I am going to try to save the decals because they are no longer available but we shall see. Seadoo discontinues things very early.
Here you can see how bad it is oxidized. The white is from the sun and the yellow is where it rested on the trailer
