97 Sea Doo GSI hole in tuned pipe assembly. No power.

jam1ej20

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Mar 31, 2009
Messages
111
I have a 97 SeaDoo GSI and it began giving problems this weekend. The ski started to bog down and would not plane out. The motor seems to be revving okay and runs fine but it will not take off. It seems like an impeller issue. So I pulled the seat and noticed water shooting from the tuned pipe assembly. Took the ski out of the water and flushed and cleaned the interior.

Can the hole in the tuned pipe cause the loss of power that I'm seeing or do I have two separate problems here? The hole is about 1/2" in diameter, much larger than a pinhole leak.

Of note: Earlier in the day I tried to pull up a rider on a wake skate without success. Could that load have damaged something?
 

jam1ej20

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Mar 31, 2009
Messages
111
Re: 97 Sea Doo GSI hole in tuned pipe assembly. No power.

I see that the tuned pipe failure is common. Anyone experience loss of power because of it? I know there is lots of experience out there on this.

Thanks
 

dannyual767

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 15, 2010
Messages
273
Re: 97 Sea Doo GSI hole in tuned pipe assembly. No power.

I had two 1996 Sea Doo XPs with the 787 engines that I bought last January in non-running condition. In addition to one of them needing two new (used replacement) jugs due to freeze cracking, once I got them running, both skis had leaking pipes. As you found out, this is very common with these older Sea Doos. The factory plugs corrode and you've got to get them welded back up. I've read that people have been paying about $60 per pipe to have them TIG welded. I got lucky and was given the name of a local welder two miles from my house who welded both of my pipes for $65 total!

I experienced no power loss with the leaking pipes. The water leaks can cause all sorts of problems, though. One of mine had been soaking the front cover when the previous owner ran it. The water leaked past the rubber o-ring seal and corroded up my stator. Needless to say, it was one of about a million things that I had to replace on these two XPs. Today they both run like champs and are a ton of fun. We ran 70 gallons of gas through the two of them during the Fourth of July week at the beginning of this month! The skis are now owned by my brother-in-law.

Get that pipe welded up and see how it runs.
 

jam1ej20

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Mar 31, 2009
Messages
111
Re: 97 Sea Doo GSI hole in tuned pipe assembly. No power.

Thanks for the reply. The ski is at our beach home and I will get to take the pipe off this weekend and get it welded. You seem to have confirmed my fears. I'm almost sure that this is two separate problems. I'll get the pipe welded up and then look for the loss of power issue.

Thanks
 

SpitAndDirt

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
103
Re: 97 Sea Doo GSI hole in tuned pipe assembly. No power.

Before you remove the pipe to get welded, you should run a compression test to determine how healthy the motor is. Second, and even more important, has this ski had it's original fuel lines replaced and carburetor filters cleaned? Last, voltage regulators of those years are also very prone to failing and causing low power problems. Disconnect the red wire from the voltage regulator and take the ski out to see if you get power back. It's a good idea just to change it out if it's original anyway, it's going to fail one way or another.
 
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