Re: Should I stay clear of rebuilt engines?
S B T has their issues My experience with them was on a seadoo 787 engine that lost a screw on the oil pump and seized up. As previously mentioned you have to find the reason for the failure or it will occur again . After finding the reason for the failure I did an exchange with them, fortunately for me I live relatively close so I drove it to them. In 3 months their engine hatched , I found it was a rave valve snagging a ring. this was their issue , so I was given another at no expense however you have to pull it disassemble a lot of it and then reverse the procedure, not to mention the time to break in the thing each time you change it. this engine lasted another 3 months, and here we go again same issue it snagged a ring. Went through the process again and 3 months later another ring snagged while idling in a no wake zone. That did it for me, I tore down their engine replaced the parts myself made sure the rave valves were cut to match the cylinder bore so they would not snag another ring and that engine ran forever with no issues. So it all boils down to how the engine is rebuilt There is no guarantee that a rebuilt engine is any better or worse than one that isn't. On two stroke engines many things can go wrong if you are new to the sport. Sucking up sand into the cooling system, overheating it in weeds or not inspecting the motor mounts, or running with no oil, running lean etc. Checking compression and checking end play on the rods is all important when buying a used ski, even a bad or worn out engine will run out of the water.
