2018 ar195 sluggish with weigh aboard

[Rmreagan8]

Hello, new to the forum, I probably could find the answers on here so where but hopefully this post will help me.

I have a 2018 AR195 with a little over 100 hours, had it since it was new.

I have started to notice that with more people on the boat or when getting a wakeboarder to get up I have a very sluggish start to the point where if it’s not an experience wakeborder they sometimes can’t get up.

At a start With WOT the rpm’s shoot Up and it takes good 15-30 seconds before I get above 10 miles an hour and then eventually plain out.

I took it out solo yesterday and there was no lag and got to 50mph with ease.
I’m hoping someone can help tell me what to check to find the issue.
Thanks in advance !

 

[2kwik4u]

Sounds like cavitation from here.

Does the engine rev high and hit the rev limiter? Feels like it's "spinning the tires" on takeoff? If so, it's cavitation. Check the impeller for damage. Check the clearance between the impeller and the wear ring. Check the intake tunnel for missing/loose sealant and remove/replace as needed.

 

[Rmreagan8]

Yes that’s exactly what it is like.

I took a look at the sealant and there is one small hole at the top and then some gaps between some of the parts.
I Read some other posts about cleaning that up and I’ll give that a try to start.

 

[2kwik4u]

That impeller looks pretty good. So does the clearance to the wear ring.

Check out this thread where I resealed my intake tunnel on our '17 AR190. It has the smaller 155mm pump (yours has the 160mm pump), but the concept is the same.

https://jetboaters.net/threads/hero-or-zero-resealed-my-jet-pump.17845/

 

[Steve73]

When you went out by yourself are you able to punch the throttle basically full forward and it goes up on plane no problem? Or do you "spin your wheels" and have to ease the throttle to get on plane?

I have a 2018 AR190 and I always have to ease into my throttle with just me or multiple people on board. More people more I have to ease into it. Less people, more punch, but I can never full punch or hammer down the throttle, otherwise I spin my tires.

Are other single engines able to hammer down and go? I just thought this was a drawback of the single engine.

 

[Rmreagan8]

I’m gonna try the sealant move here in a little bit. Thanks for the tips on how to do it and attempt to prevent a mess.
To answer the other question, when I’m solo I can punch it down and there’s not any overly noticeable spin. I notice the spin with passengers on and really notice it when getting a wakeboard up compared to when it was new and I could pop someone up with passengers no problem.

 

[Steve73]

I’m gonna try the sealant move here in a little bit. Thanks for the tips on how to do it and attempt to prevent a mess.
To answer the other question, when I’m solo I can punch it down and there’s not any overly noticeable spin. I notice the spin with passengers on and really notice it when getting a wakeboard up compared to when it was new and I could pop someone up with passengers no problem.

Interesting…. I will look into this. Here is my impeller.

 

[Rmreagan8]

Yeah I am not sure what to look for in the impeller or wear ring besides if the impeller has obvious damage to it.
I would be curious on what to look for in those things to know if there’s an issue or how much spacing is too much.

 

[2kwik4u]

When you went out by yourself are you able to punch the throttle basically full forward and it goes up on plane no problem? Or do you "spin your wheels" and have to ease the throttle to get on plane?

I have a 2018 AR190 and I always have to ease into my throttle with just me or multiple people on board. More people more I have to ease into it. Less people, more punch, but I can never full punch or hammer down the throttle, otherwise I spin my tires.

Are other single engines able to hammer down and go? I just thought this was a drawback of the single engine.

I have a few mods on my boat......However......I've had 8 adults on my boat with 2 coolers and was able to go WOT from a dead stop with no cavitation. It doesn't jump on plane, but it'll get there, and it never touches the rev limiter. I'm actually fighting the new ridesteady system now because it overshoots too much, and I'm having to ease into the throttle instead of just "hammering down" out of the hole. The boat really doesn't slip at all, and launches about as close as you can get to a scared cat on carpet when your in the water. I've raced a few "go fast" boats and will regularly beat them to 25-30mph out of the hole, however they come around me fast enough to pull the gelcoat off the hull once they finally plane out.

WOT with a light load will get me 40-41mph most days. Medium load I'm down in the high 30's or so. Max revs are around 7,550, so there is a little left in there for me if I wanted it. I think the rev limiter is around 7,700 (7,800 maybe? I can't remember)

Mods are fairly minimal really.

• L13 Cone (all spacers minus one red one)
• Sealed intake tunnel
• Ribbon Delete
• Stock impeller and wear ring at 200hrs (middle of 6th season and pumps never been apart)
• Change oil and plugs every year whether they need it or not.

@swatski did a TON of research and work on impeller and pump modifications a few years ago (back when he just had the S190, not those monsters he has in NY now ). He was able to tune the pump setup to get an awesome launch OR get well into the 40's on the top end, but rarely both. I'm not as concerned with top speed, so I took the low end plays from his playbook and modded my boat to match. I can get up on a wakeskate with 3 adults and 4 kids in the boat, thats with 20yrs of boarding experience and drinking a little lake water. It still has enough of a "hit" with that loading to pull the rope from my hands if I'm not paying attention though.

If you're getting cavitation on launch, the first thing to do is seal that intake tunnel up. It was hands down the best bang for the buck mod I did to my boat. Cost $10 in sealant and an hour or so to do. I did it in '18 and was under the boat the other day and it's still holding on just fine.

 

[2kwik4u]

Yeah I am not sure what to look for in the impeller or wear ring besides if the impeller has obvious damage to it.
I would be curious on what to look for in those things to know if there’s an issue or how much spacing is too much.

You're doing fine.

Impeller check is mostly visual. Make sure there is nothing around the shaft (fishing line, etc). Make sure there are no dings/dents/scuffs on teh face or the leading edges. Make sure the bearings are good every season. It's not bad.

I think tolerance between the wear ring and the impeller is like 0.010-0.015 or so. Less than a credit card. You can get a set of feeler gages and the service manual if you want to get super scientific on the check.

 

[BrandonG]

It sounds like yours is doing the same thing mine was doing. I took my 195 to Lake Powell last year and with 8 people/coolers and a bunch of audio/batteries I could not get the boat on plane, it would accelerate to the point where it was just about to get on plane and then the pump would just start cavitating. We dumped all the audio back at the house and were able to get out just fine though but it seemed like no matter what if you gun it there is alot of cavitation on the holeshot. When I did my impeller last weekend everything looked fairly good but I could see a few places on the impeller fins that were bent or misformed. The wear ring had minor scoring and there was minor pitting on one of the blades.

It seemed like after the new wear ring and Solas impeller the clearance from impeller to wear ring shrank quite a bit so Im confident it should be alot better. I'll be going out saturday so we'll see what it does

 

[Rmreagan8]

Thanks for all the responses.
I’ll be doing the sealant today and test it out this weekend.
i ordered the l13, solas impeller and wear ring. We will see how long those take to get here and if it’s worth it to spend a day working on it with These short Wisconsin’s boating seasons or just skate by until winter and take care of it.

 

[Steve73]

Thanks! Definitely sounds like I am getting cavitation. I will be out this weekend and will pay closer attention to it.

 

[Steve73]

It sounds like yours is doing the same thing mine was doing. I took my 195 to Lake Powell last year and with 8 people/coolers and a bunch of audio/batteries I could not get the boat on plane, it would accelerate to the point where it was just about to get on plane and then the pump would just start cavitating. We dumped all the audio back at the house and were able to get out just fine though but it seemed like no matter what if you gun it there is alot of cavitation on the holeshot. When I did my impeller last weekend everything looked fairly good but I could see a few places on the impeller fins that were bent or misformed. The wear ring had minor scoring and there was minor pitting on one of the blades.

It seemed like after the new wear ring and Solas impeller the clearance from impeller to wear ring shrank quite a bit so Im confident it should be alot better. I'll be going out saturday so we'll see what it does

can you send the link to the impellar and wear ring?

 

[BrandonG]

@Steve73

The Solas impeller I used was YV-CD 13/18 its pitched for better holeshot and less top speed, otherwise the OE Yamaha part number is 6GN-R1321-10-00

The wear ring part number is 6GN-R1337-00-00

You will also need the solas wr014h impeller shaft holder tool.

Hoyt made a thread in the AR195 specific section called 2019 impeller replacement with pictures that is a great resource.