SJ Leaking water between firewall and hull

[Harbor]

Good question, I'am never had a SN... So I image it's plumed like an Rn Sj and has at least one cooling tube plumed into the tray to transport the water from your pump to your engine thru the tray.
If this tube gets a screw into it or degrades and develops a leak water under pressure from the pump will leak into the tray.

I need to learn how to speak with less words, lol

Just wondering about cold water leaks.

Your engine bay is super clean

What kind of bilge are you running ? If it's a working siphon system and your getting 3in water that's a lot of water.

 

[Allistah]

Ah ok... I run the stock bilge. I recently installed a ProTec reduction nozzle and the siphon line must not have as much vacuum as the stock one because I noticed this right after I installed that. I'm thinking this leak had been there a while and the stock bill was pulling most of it out. I'll talk to ProTec about that but that's another problem.

Thanks for the compliment on the hull. I keep my stuff really clean. It's a lot easier for me to see problems and fix issues.


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[Harbor]

I've never had a ski that didn't leak water. As far as I know they all leak. So now I'am curious about your bilge system and this protec nozzle.

You've been riding /wrenching skis 25 years, that's a long time, very impressive..

^^^ just to clarify so this isn't taken the wrong way, I mean it in a positive, respectful manner, I'am giving props and respect!!

 

[JetManiac]

Your midshaft housing looks nice, I doubt it is your leak unless it between housing and bulkhead not sealed. Harbor your midshaft was terrible!

 

[Harbor]

^^^ Agreed, his pics of the mid shaft last night helped, it's pretty clean.... Lol on mine though

Alli Thought of something on your bilge and Protec nozzle being less efficient or becoming a water pump into hull. Does the Protec have the portion of the siphon tube that protrudes into the exiting jet stream removed ?

 

[Allistah]

No, the tube in the reduction nozzle is there and the hose is attached. It barely protrudes into the jet stream though so I think I'm going to tap it in a bit farther like the stock one. I also thought that it might be pulling water into the hull so while riding I disconnected that line and had it poking out under the hood to see if I could see any water coming in and not a drop.

JetManiac, where does water get inside behind the bulkhead/firewall? How would I check to make sure that seal is not letting water in behind that back wall?


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[Allistah]

Let me clarify.. I disconnected the end of the hose in the hull that picks up the water and routed it outside the hood so I could see if water was coming out of it instead of going into it and nothing came out.


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[speedysprocket]

Sounds like tray surgery is in order. Even if you sealed that bottom seam, water is still getting in your tray some how and will water log your foam, make the ski heavy, and cause further corrosion issues.

 

[Allistah]

Ack... This sucks. I think I need to find the leak first before sealing up that seam.

If I rode about 4-5 laps on a course, I had about three inches of water in the bottom of the hull. Thats a lot of water. to come in from under that seam if it is indeed all coming from that point. I think I should probably do some additional testing to really see if thats the case or not first.

 

[Allistah]

Harbor gave me a good idea to vacuum test the cooling lines to see if any leak.

What I've done in the past is connect the garden hose to the line that comes from the pump and pressurize the cooling system with a lot of water as the pump would do when going full throttle. If there are any leaks anywhere in the cooling system, it will allow me to see the leak pretty fast in the hull especially if I start with a bone dry hull.

 

[Allistah]

Ok I got home and did the pressure test with the hose hooked up to to line that connects to the pump.

First thing I found was that I'm almost embarrassed to even tell here... Either I didn't tighten the front ride plate bolts all the way or they worked themselves out. I'm thinking I didn't tighten them and they got bent. They were both hanging out. I'm lucky I didn't rip the ride plate all the way off. This must be where the water was getting inside that section in the hull. Pretty lame on my part.

The cooling water line from the pump that goes inside the hull has a small tear in it and is leaking water. It's outside the hull but should be fixed before it splits and I have no water to the engine.

There is a tiny leak at the end of the cooling line that attaches to the bottom of the exhaust manifold. It's just a slight drip. I'm guessing replacing the water line will fix this too.

Now I have water under the tray from the ride plate bolts not being in place - I'm guessing. Anything I can do to drain that section to make sure I get the water out of that area?

Here is a pic of the two ride plate bolts:

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[Harbor]

Opps!!

I don't think the water will come out of the foam now, absorbs pretty well and retains it. Surgury and defoam or live with it, was prolly Already wet anyways just from age.. They all leak.

 

[Allistah]

Holy crap - seriously? It soaks it up and won't let it go? How lame... Damn this sucks. If allowed to drain it won't even come out?

 

[Harbor]

No it might drain a tiny bit that's it. It was prolly already soaked though, Iam seriouse!

To bad they aren't well sealed if you could pull a 30 inches vacuum on the tray compartment it would boil the water out on a Warm day.

Another guy recently had his RN have a tube cooling tube leak in the tray so he wanted to stand it up on its tail and remove the exausht outlet ring on the back and let drain. You might ask him if he got any out. Iam sure it's was a complete wast of time and didnt work.

Let me see if I can find the thread

 

[Harbor]

Here it is, might send him a pm on how the draining went

http://www.x-h2o.com/index.php?thre...umped-into-my-engine-bay.156400/#post-1688742

 

[Allistah]

Ok, thanks. I'll follow up with him..

 

[superjetincairns]

Yep that was me. Some water did drain out but not a lot. I had the same symptoms as you. My engine bay was filling up fast during riding. My cooling tube was corroded out inside the tray pumping the tray full and overflowing into the engine bay around the exhaust. I'm currently doing footholds install so I cut open the tray to refoam it anyway. After a week of draining it the bottom 3 inches of foam was still waterlogged and there was still probably 2 litres of water swishing around in there after I got the foam out. There's only one way to fix it unfortunately and it involves fibreglass and itchy arms for a couple of days.

 

[Allistah]

Did you ride that SJ in salt water a lot? So weird that the line under the tray corroded and was pumping water into the tray and spilling over.

Would there be an easy way to tell if this is happening to me without cutting the tray out? Maybe pressurize that line with water and watch and listen to see if I can hear water leaking and if it starts spilling into the engine bay.

If I move the back of the ski around should I hear it sloshing around?


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[superjetincairns]

Here's a few pics of my leaking pipe and the mess I've made so far.

 

[superjetincairns]

The leaky pipe