2011 sea doo challenger 180

[Lwly94]

Recently purchased a 2011 sea doo challenger 180
255 SE

boat ran amazing before purchase at all throttle positions. Tested for an hour.
Got it home installed some audio on it.
Dropped it in the water yesterday and it would not go over 10mph. Engine would rev high into 7-8k and hardly be going anywhere and was cutting out.

everyone is saying it’s the wear ring, which is possible. But would it be the carbon seal too? Or is it known to cavitate with just the wear ring being out .

if carbon seal is a possibility, where exactly is that located

 

[Sidarousmg]

sounds like you may have something stuck in the impeller/wear ring that is causing cavitation. I would pull the pump, remove the impeller and take a close look. I'm willing to bet you have a small piece of debris lodged in there somewhere. Carbon seals don't usually suddenly go bad, unless you ran the engine out of the water for an extended period of time. Carbon seal is located inside the bilge, it connects the engine to the impeller shaft. will be covered by a rubber boot.

 

[Lwly94]

sounds like you may have something stuck in the impeller/wear ring that is causing cavitation. I would pull the pump, remove the impeller and take a close look. I'm willing to bet you have a small piece of debris lodged in there somewhere. Carbon seals don't usually suddenly go bad, unless you ran the engine out of the water for an extended period of time. Carbon seal is located inside the bilge, it connects the engine to the impeller shaft. will be covered by a rubber boot.

I looked off inside of the bottom grate and I can see the impeller. It does have a noticeably even gap between the impeller and the wear ring. Although, I did not see anything lodged in there.

 

[Sidarousmg]

wear ring can certainly cause cavitation, but i don't know why it was working last time and not this time without another reason. are you hammering the throttle? did you try gradually increasing throttle as you gain speed, kinda like slipping a clutch? if you can gradually gain speed and get on plane, then yes, the wear ring is your likely culprit. but again, wear ring wouldn't just go bad after working perfectly during your test trial.
P.S. if you have a small piece of debris caught between the impeller edge and the wear ring, that would cause the groove you are seeing and would certainly cause massive cavitation. but you may not be able to see the debris until you pull the pump out. had this exact thing happen to me before, it was a small piece of wood about the size of a thumb nail.

 

[Lwly94]

I’ll have to take it apart and have a look, I mean the difference between test day and the day I took it out is, when I tested it was just me and the original owner and one of my buddies, when I took it out the other day, it was me and 5 other people so 6 total. But I mean the boat should still come out of the hole right? I was banging throttle and gradually increasing it as I gained speed but I was only gaining speed up to 10mph. Couldn’t really get it over that. It would start slipping at 6-10mph

 

[Sidarousmg]

weight makes a huge difference, especially if you have weight in the bow. 6 passengers (if they are all adults), plus gear. but when i had the groove on mine (215 hp) and i loaded the boat, i could still get it on plane by very slowly increasing and feathering the throttle, although it would take some time to get on plane.

 

[Lwly94]

Yeah well I mean there is a weight difference, but I do think the wear ring needs replacing. Unit has 118 hours on it without replacing. And we have somewhat choppy water as well. But also another thing I recall is we had most of our weight in the back of the boat. Had 2 100lb girls in the bow so would that make it harder to get on plane?