I'll preface this with some relevant, although not important information. I fix VW's. Alot of them. Have for a long time (20+ years), and I'm quite good if I do say so myself. It's my love, my passion, my career. I buy ALOT of VW's sight unseen as I've gotten quite good at diagnosing most problems by reading the seller and judging what they presume to be the problem, and I know the market and everything about them very well. I don't buy so much to flip/profit off of, but I get off on resurrecting the unfixable and breathing new life into tired, neglected cars.
With that said - I've been venturing more and more into jet operated machinery. Again, the passion and love drives me, but I learn more often than not that I have not spent 20+ years wrenching on these and I'm learning alot as I go. My latest acquisition (a 2006 SX230) popped up on here a few days before Bimini. On ebay, no reserve, so I watched it. Somehow, someway, I remembered when the auction was ending one evening while in Bimini. I rushed from the infinity pool back to Dirk's condo as it was closer and I had the wifi information saved. Beer likely had alot to do with it, but I made it to wifi in time and won the auction for $7500. Took a couple weeks to get the payment settled and get her shipped, but she finally landed here about a week and a half ago? And she brought her good friend reality with her too.
Now, I talked to Jon on the phone multiple times. Texted a bunch. Probably emailed. And of course, studied the description numerous times. I'm not often taken. I've waited what I consider a reasonable amount of time before posting with a hot head, and now my feelings haven't changed much. I'd like to present the facts I was given, and give you most studious readers some pictoral evidence of my findings, and let you be the judge and see if I'm just that naive and stupid.
<thanks if you've made it this far!>
Minor quibble, but I sure didn't expect the boat to have been sitting for years. With a registration expiring 9/16, who knows the last time this thing actually ran. Lie? No. Misleading, I think so. You? Had I known this boat had been sitting 3-4/more? years, it would've changed things dramatically. Again, minor quibble, but bears mentioning.
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Ok, but maybe, especially since the filters are so visible, mention something about their condition?
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Oh boy. Seriously? Pictured is the order I pulled them out. From cylinder 1-4, starboard engine and then port. In that order. Can anyone tell me which 3 plugs look new?
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Batteries (neither) had any charge, but that's to be expected. The Perko switch was thrown in the compartment unhooked from anything, not expected, but it's used. I didn't buy a new boat. I know this. One battery was hooked up, other wasn't. I get it, testing. Totally understandable, but maybe I would've taken a little more care and pointed approach to a proper diagnosis. The positive cable where it hooks to the port side ECM box was visibly burnt off (not to mention the ECM box was hanging on the wall with one loose bolt), information that I know for sure I'd be telling a prospective buyer.
Some other things that I'd probably list (particularly if my business was in the jetski/boat parts business so I probably know them REALLY well!). All hose clamps are loose, as if someone was prepping for engine removal. Not like, I'm digging into stuff and happen to notice, but open the engine hatch and all these excessively loose clamps are staring at you loose. Many bolts missing (including at least one engine mount). And, these pics tell a few stories too:
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Read below but description in ebay shows that I check 3 plugs and they all looked brand new; to the point where I mentioned that they looked brand new and had been changed and told ZERO about the state of the engines. If I was trying to mislead why would I have not changed all the plugs? Ofcourse in hind sight would I have looked at the other ones? Yes but given the same scenario again I would do the same error again.
I will admit that in the bright light and out in the open they are not brand new but #5 and #7 do look un-run to me and I was also under a covered storage with plugs in engine compartment. If I was trying to pass one over like an unscrupulous seller, I would have changed all the plugs at a whopping $2.50 a piece. The point I was making is that the plugs I pulled looked good enough and had been changed; there was zero info in my mind I was trying to pass other than they looked like (in my opinion in the darker light) they had been changed and engine had NOT been run with them in there.
This one is a bit on me in that I wished I had checked all the plugs but I feel like I would have done and have done the same thing over and over. I checked them to see corrosion etc, and when I saw 2 or 3 that looked newish, I fealt like there was ZERO info to be gained because the plugs had recently been replaced.
