Oil pumps on Kawis and Sea Doos question.

[Cashpoboy]

I have both a Kawi '98 ZXI and a '99 Sea Doo XP. If I run on premix gas/oil in gas tank, can I leave the oil pump on and just let the oil tank run empty? <br />Will this harm the pump?<br />I know there are block off plates out there, but is it really necessary? Thanks for any help.

 

[BiXLL]

Re: Oil pumps on Kawis and Sea Doos question.

I took mine off and used the blockoff plate. If you want to leave on, I would at least pull the lines off the carbs and block off the carb inlets, otherwise you will be pumping air into the carbs. I would also disconnect the line from the tank to the pump so you don't pump risidual oil throughout your engine compartment. Third, you will need to pull your sending unit out of your tank, and wire tie the float in the full position to keep your warning lights and buzzers from going off.(put sender back in tank after tieing the float up)

 

[Johnshan1]

Re: Oil pumps on Kawis and Sea Doos question.

Seems like a lot of work just to bypass a wonderful feature... why are we all so scared of oil injection?

 

[Tech SBT]

Re: Oil pumps on Kawis and Sea Doos question.

All the oil pumps are made by Mikuni. They are generally good for 6-7 years of general use, then the rate of failure starts to increase. We advise our customers to either replace or remove the pumps periodically, most choose to remove for $15 over a $200-$250 oil pump. Here's an article on how to do it:<br /><br /> http://www.sbtontheweb.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/33/4.html

 

[Johnshan1]

Re: Oil pumps on Kawis and Sea Doos question.

While I respect your statements, I still do not agree. These oil pumps are no different from a snowmobiles system. You never ever hear about pump failure in these high-rev 2 strokes, the same goes for ATV's. It seems to me people get scared by all the hype and just dont really understand how these work, they are not prone to failure unless you get debris stuck in the filters or the pump, even then its not the pumps fault, its a lack of maintenence issue by that point.<br /><br />Just my thoughts...<br />-John

 

[Tech SBT]

Re: Oil pumps on Kawis and Sea Doos question.

I agree, the majority of failures is due to lack of proper care. PWC users in comparison to bike and sled owners, are nortorious for lack of care. It explains a great percentage of failures, not only of oil pumps, but many other parts as well. The fact remains that a great number of oil failures happen every year. I can't fix the root cause, and make everyone take better care of thier skis, I wish I could.

 

[Jeff Walkowiak]

Re: Oil pumps on Kawis and Sea Doos question.

here is something to ponder,if you pre mix you are relying on the oil to go into the engine through the carb if the internal screen gets plugged up your carb runs lean that cylinder runs hot from being lean and is getting less oil so its a bad situation, and it will stick the rings at best.I can list a bunch of oil pump failures and they do happen, usually on older skies, , as far as a block off plate some people just leave the pump on and block off the nipples and oil line. I have recently decided to remove the oil pumps on a 787 and a720 sea doo, the 787 is easy but the 720 requires some disassembly of the engine to remove it. Both have rotary valves so they need the oil tank hooked up to the center of the engine and oil for the valve assembly etc. its really a personal preference. One possible soloution is to leave your pump on with all lines connected and the tank full of oil ,lock the pump in the low speed mode and un hook the cable from the throttle that advances the pump when you accelerate. this gives you a little extra oil while running and allows you to re attach the cable in the future if you decide to go back to straight injection and you don't need to buy anything.