cavitatorhater

little update... I had a few issues with cavitation at the beginning of last year but after having the ride plate resealed a couple times and the wear ring replaced the boat worked awesome - LOVE this boat!!  Very fun boat and the performance is fantastic.  Thanks for your help everyone. 

Alright, so we got the boat back from the dealer and they were not able to see anything wrong with the pump. They called Seadoo's tech line and were told to replace the wear ring and reseal the ride plate and the pump. After waiting the few days required to allow the sealant time to finish curing we took it out for about 90 minutes. The thing worked awesome - very impressive. Still had a tiny bit of reasonable cavitation from a dead stop but other that that fine. The thing ran great until we shut it off at loading.

My parents came up for a visit the very next day so we decided to take them out and the friggin' exact same cavitation issue came back right off the trailer! We had a lot more time to figure it out but top speed was literally 22kph which would be around 15mph. It does seem to cavitate less easily if the operator put it into a turn - even with a slight turn a person can grab a few hundred rpm, then a few more and then a little more until finally the boat gets up on plane then wide open throttle is obtainable with a top speed of around 84kph.

Perhaps we have a ventilation issue?? Anyone know a thing or two about that? Or maybe the factory ride plate is very slightly warped and that's why it sealed for a day but then perhaps it lost it's seal??

Taking this boat to a dealer costs me 10 hours of my life due to the significant distance, any helpful insight would be appreciated.

cheers!

Thanks MT180SP, some really good info there.

I owned a powersports dealership for a decade (not marine though), went to college in a mechanical related field (automotive mostly), and overall have been in some sort of automotive,powersports or heavy equipment field for around 20yrs. I totally understand what you are saying as there are obvious limitations when trying to get a boat this size to be able to get all 255 horses to the water as efficiently as possible without any cavitation - especially if the same basic pump is being used regardless of boat size, type, usage or horsepower - of course there are minor differences internally but it is not engineered specifically for this boat. They can't just add another 40 horspower and a more agressive impeller and have a set-up that won't cavitate whatsoever. I understand all of that.

This issue isn't at all like having too much power in your hot rod and spinning your tires on pavement, it's actually just like having your hot rod on black ice (I'm from Canada, I know what this is like). There is seriously something wrong with this boat - they would have never-ever brought it to market like this purposefully. It isn't a matter of feathering the throttle until it gets up to speed - max speed is around 15mph! The dealer pulled the pump apart and found nothing wrong, replaced the wear ring, some seal (I was driving when I took the call and didn't catch which seal) and they re-sealed the ride plate. I'm picking it up tonight and can't use it until the sealant used on the ride plate fully cures which is supposed to be on Saturday. Guess we'll see...

Had one of my colleagues at work who is an amazing Technician as well as an old Seedoo tech look at the unit and he also took it for a ride. He figured the dealer installed the impeller during PDI and that it felt to him as though it had the incorrect impeller installed. I used to own an atv/snowmobile and motorcycle dealership for a decade and we did have some critical tuning components to install during PDI - mostly due to the horsepower loss at higher altitudes (they all came tuned for sea level).

My boat is supercharged so i cant see why the dealer should have to install a different impeller than what is supplied with the boat (assuming there is one supplied). Also, he figured that it had been accidently exchanged with a non-turbocharged unit. It seems like it cavitates however when you crank the steering wheel to either side you can pretty much get the jet to "hook up" then it seems pretty fun actually.

please anyone - any thoughts?

Had one of my colleagues at work who is an amazing Technician as well as an old Seedoo tech look at the unit and he also took it for a ride. He figured the dealer installed the impeller during PDI and that it felt to him as though it had the incorrect impeller installed. I used to own an atv/snowmobile and motorcycle dealership for a decade and we did have some critical tuning components to install during PDI - mostly due to the horsepower loss at higher altitudes (they all came tuned for sea level).

My boat is supercharged so i cant see why the dealer should have to install a different impeller than what is supplied with the boat (assuming there is one supplied). Also, he figured that it had been accidently exchanged with a non-turbocharged unit. It seems like it cavitates however when you crank the steering wheel to either side you can pretty much get the jet to "hook up" then it seems pretty fun actually.

please anyone - any thoughts?