"new member" Have a question for the Sea Ray Experts!

[Puppamerrill]

I recently purchased a Sea Rayder F16. They assured me that the oil pump was in great working condition but said they don't trust oil pumps. They said that I should pre mix. How can I tell if the oil pump is working correctly. I would like to use it. But on the other hand I don't want to fill it and just run gas in the tank and have the pump fail and smoke the motor. Any advice?

One more question. I know this sounds rookie- ish but is the boat in neutral when the switch is pulled out or pushed in? As you can tell I haven't taken it out yet. I'm going to launch it Memorial weekend so I need some help from the experts before I get to that point. Thanks guys!

 

[JediJD]

The reason that they suggest premix is that when the oil pump fails, the consequences are catastrophic. By using premix, you don't have that worry. There are plenty of websites and youtubes about changing over.

Frankly, I find premix a pain. I feel that if my oil pump is working, its working. I bought the jetskis that I have because they used regular fuel, easily available on the lake.

 

[Puppamerrill]

Thanks Jedi, but do you know how I can tell if it's working? Are there any quick ways to check that?

 

[jpk33]

The only way I know of is (1) you will get some smoke out the exhaust (along with a bit of an oil sheen). The only TRUE method (and this takes a while) is mark your oil tank and run a tank of gas thru it - the oil tank SHOULD go down - but if it doesn't you've (more than likely) wrecked you engine.

 

[rabyers1]

Fill your oil tank and then also pre-mix about a 1/2 tank of fuel with the correct amount of oil. Then, run your boat under load for awhile and then check to see if the oil tank level has gone down. It won't hurt to burn double oil for the short duration that it takes to verify the oil mix is working properly - you will just have a little more blue smoke than usual. After you are done you can always pull your sparkplugs and clean any excess oil deposits off the electrodes.

 

[Puppamerrill]

TY Rabyers1. Thats a great idea.

 

[fwebster]

All the above ideas are horrible..........and that is the problem with the oil pumps. If you run the engine with a non-functioning pump, you burn up an otherwise perfectly good engine. It really doesn't matter if you see smoke or if the oil level goes down if the boat is at the Mercruiser shop getting a new powerhead.

I had a Sea Rayder and the first thing I did before launching it was to pump out all the fuel and mix the correct amount of oil with it then pour it back in. Next, I disconnected the oil injection system.

The reason you have to take an aggressive approach with Merc oil injection is that some of the engines have a pump with a plastic or nylon push rod that easily wears or breaks with no notice and no warrning...........and that takes you back to the first paragraph.


The Merc SportJet has no neutral or reverse. The motor drives an impeller pump and the direction of the exhaust discharge controls the direction of the boat. When in forward position, the deflector gate is raised out of the way. IN neutral position, the gate partially obstructs the jet's exhaust flow to part id deflected forward and part is unobstructed, the ideal of which is that the 2 flows balance out and the boat sits still. IN the reverse position, all the jet's exhaust is deflected down and to the front which yields reverse motion.

Steering these little boats in reverse is a challenge because the boat goes just opposite they way you think it should. Put one hand in the center of the wheel on the bottom, not the top. Your hand moves in the direction the boat is going to back.......i.e turn the wheel to the right and the boat is going to the left in reverse.

The button you pull out has not control over the reversing gate, so it isn't going to put the jet in neutral. What that knob does is to disengage the reversing gate cable so you can advance the throttle without putting the jet in forward when starting the engine.

ALso, the chokes on the Sportjet are tricky........It is activated by pushing the key while turning it to crank the engine. They are easy to flood, so turn the key to spin the starter motor and punch the key in for one second at a time until the engine starts.

Hope that helps..............

 

[Cleatus Jo]

I agree with frank... I bought a 15 year old jet ski ( 1990 Kaw. 650 TS) 5 years ago after dismantling the engine, fly cutting and polishing the head, and reassembling it I dismantled the oil injection and I pre-mix now. I found i was obsessing on weather it was working or not.

 

[fwebster]

Scott,

You may have the right answer but you didn't bother to tell him why or to answer the other questions in the original post.

Verbose........? Lots of words maybe, but verbose indicates a lack of content. I would argue that isn't the case since he now understands the design problems making Merc's SportJet oil injection risky and he knows how his jet's "transmission" works.