Sbt or pwc

[DouglasZXi]

So I need some help. Buying a new engine for my zxi 1100. Please no one take this personally but I've had nothing but bad experiences with people from New York. Got a Diesel engine from a company there a couple years back and it blew up after 2 months and the company refused to honor there warranty. Saying that pwc engines (ny) or sbt (fl). Sbt is more expensive I know just wanted some of y'all's input/experiences. OR if you know of any other place I should look. Thanks

 

[JimS123]

Re: Sbt or pwc

Don't know about PWC, but I've heard a ton of bad things about SBT.

I've known several people that have repowered a car wit a rebuilt engine and had good luck for years. But I've never met anyone that got more than a year or 2 out of a rebuilt watercraft engine. Certainly no DIY jobs, but even the dealer installed repowers don't last long. Even if it does, SBT might warrant the engine, but the installing dealer probably won't warrant the labor.

 

[jzellers]

Re: Sbt or pwc

I've used SBT several times and they're a good company. They stand behind their engines and offer a no-fault warranty, which really can't be beat. I have two Yamaha SUV's, one with a 4-stroke conversion, and another with a 2-year old SBT block. It still has 125 psi in all three cylinders.

What happens all too often (me included in my earlier days when I didn't know better) is that the engine blows, and a new short block gets installed in it's place. The issue is that the real cause of the original blow-up was never dealt with. Usually it's the carbs that needed to be rebuilt. The first SUV I owned had a fresh short block with only a couple of break-in hours on it when I bought it. The next summer (about 25 hours later), it blew again. The guy I bought it from had a dealer install it, but the carbs were not rebuilt. I rebuilt them and found that the regulator diaphram in one of the carbs was cracked and actually leaking gas. If I had known better, I would have rebuilt the carbs first and it would have ran for a long time.

I've seen SBT own up to assembly failures and make it right too, so I don't have any issues with them and would use them again any time.

 

[shagy959]

Re: Sbt or pwc

ive had a few sbt motors the cranks seem to hold up the top ends seem to be really sloppy but this is just from my personal buying of skis i tend to want to stay away from them hell you cna buy a top end kit for 300 of ebay and rebuild a crank for around the same get a manual and do it your self

 

[pinbodean]

Re: Sbt or pwc

I've had several SBT motors, and I've been happy with all of them. I still have two. One is in a 93 wave runner 3, and it's got a bazillion hours on it. It gets beat on every weekend, and is still going strong. The other is in a GP 1200. It's got 140 hours on it, (30 more than the original engine when it blew)

My take is if you want a replacement motor, and you KEEP IT STOCK, they are a good value, especially with the warranty. You absolutely have to find out why the motor blew, and correct it, or the SBT will blow too, and then you will be on here saying SBT sucks.