To keep (and fix) or not to fix our 2003 SR230 Yamaha Jet Boat?

[mtnbike03]

My husband and I bought a 2003 SR230 last winter for $10k. The boat was in great shape with only 215 hours on both engines. We only took it out twice this year for less than an hour. The last time we were out, we got a low oil warning and one engine started acting up. A mechanic said one of the fuel injectors failed, flooding the engine, and the #1 cylinder is shot. He suggested a new SBT engine ($6750 installed) or an MR1 engine from eBay/jetski ($5k).

Things got shady when the mechanic insisted on pulling the engine right away, even though he hadn't received the replacement yet. He told us the replacement engine was "complete" but kept asking for more time and parts from our original engine. After researching, I found out he's a scammer and has ripped off other boat owners. We decided to walk away, but he still charged us $500 to pull the engine.

Now, we're stuck with a boat that has one engine out. We’ve already spent $13k (boat + repairs) and don’t have the funds to buy a new engine. Should we sell it at a loss or keep it and look into a rebuild? I’m not sure if the engine was even really damaged or if we were taken advantage of.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Babin Farms]

I would find someone you can trust to check the engine out and see if it’s bad or not. If not, reinstall it and enjoy the boat. If it is bad, that’s where things get shady. Depending on how much you want to spend you can put a SBT engine in with a warranty, find a used engine to put in, part the boat out to recoup your $$ or just sell it as-is.

 

[Neutron]

Don't know why he pulled the engine without your approval. Did he give you all the parts he took apart

 

[mtnbike03]

Don't know why he pulled the engine without your approval. Did he give you all the parts he took apart

He pulled

Don't know why he pulled the engine without your approval. Did he give you all the parts he took apart

We did approve of him pulling the engine but then when we couldn't get proof that he bought the new engine from ebay and he said he needed to take parts off the existing engine, things didn't feel right. Then I read a bunch of reviews of him scamming others. I believe all of the parts are there but I'm no mechanic so can't be totally sure.

 

[Speedling]

What a rotten situation! So sorry you're dealing with this!i was hoping this was about to be a "bring boat back from neglect" story. A boat with one engine isn't really going to sell. Perhaps to someone with a similar situation.
SBT didn't have the greatest reputation on the 2 strokes back in the day. But a warranty ensures you don't get scammed too badly because you can bring it back to them.
If you can find a shop you trust and the rest of the boat is in decent condition then i would say the "new boat" is costing you that much. Unfortunately that sounds like it will nearly get you to the 10k mark again.
If not financially feasible then I would try first to sell the boat as is.
Then start parting it out.
It's sad but perhaps it would get you the 5k you lost and you are out a boat but not taking on debt or paying insurance.

 

[Beachbummer]

Where are you located?

Sometimes it's the head and sometimes it's the block...Any chance it's the head only? "Cylinder shot" can mean a few things. Usually when the injector is stuck on, the issue is the computer, not the injector...and the computer can cost another $1K or so. You will want to confirm your ECU before you try again with a new engine, it would be uncool to be dumping fuel on the new engine due to ECU issue.

How's the rest of the boat?

My humble opinion, You need Engine Compression test and Leak Down test, along with injector ECU check before you throw any money at this problem.

Best of Luck.

 

[mtnbike03]

Where are you located?

Sometimes it's the head and sometimes it's the block...Any chance it's the head only? "Cylinder shot" can mean a few things. Usually when the injector is stuck on, the issue is the computer, not the injector...and the computer can cost another $1K or so. You will want to confirm your ECU before you try again with a new engine, it would be uncool to be dumping fuel on the new engine due to ECU issue.

How's the rest of the boat?

My humble opinion, You need Engine Compression test and Leak Down test, along with injector ECU check before you throw any money at this problem.

Best of Luck.

I'm in Sacramento.

Here's the receipt of what the mechanic said on the issue. I was made aware of the potential of the ECU to be an issue after he had already pulled the engine and he wouldn't respond to our messages asking if he actually checked the ECU. I was told by another mechanic that they can't test the ECU unless a working engine is tied to it. I'm so lost on what to do. I'm tired of throwing money at this boat without having faith i really know the issue. I thought about buying a used jet ski to swap the engine but I could just be throwing money at yet another problem. The other shop I called wants $1500 to take the engine apart and diagnose it.

 

[Beachbummer]

Engine does NOT need to be taken apart for first diagnosis. I would ask if they can rig a compression test of Cylinder 1, and leak down test., if the mechanic was a fraud, he might have lied about no compression.

You might need a head only if cylinders and bottom end are good, and just valves are blown.

Sadly as others contributed above, older boats are risky business, maybe they last another 10 years asking nothing, or an engine can blow without notice, and it's Bring Out Another Thousand (or 5) once again.

Ideally this would have happened to you in 8 years time, but you drew the crappy stick and got hit now.

You lost some money when the engine blew...the question is, what do you want to do next.

Option one - Cut your losses sell as is. Someone else needs the other engine and ECU, other parts, or wants a project boat. You'll be lucky to get 3-6k. Are you turned off boating yet?

If you are going to get another used boat, same thing might happen.....

Option Two Fix and Sell

Option 3 Fix and Keep.

All have you down 3-6K. Sorry.

 

[drewkaree]

You're chasing rainbows right now. Info is all over the place about what's going on with the boat, or unclear.

This doesn't matter, at this point, but to at least "bright side" any of this, you now have some experience that SHOULD start tripping alarm bells and klaxons going off when facing similar situations in the future, if you just slow down your thought process to avoid overwhelming yourself

1 - where's the pulled engine? It doesn't seem clear to me where it is, or who has it (this goes for the boat too - does this guy still have it?)

2 - ALL communication should be in writing for future repairs, as it sounds like you don't really have a strong case to sue the shit outta this guy

3 - you're looking at a rebuild or replacement of an engine - SAME issue you had when you took it to Mr Shady. What was YOUR thought process at the time?

It doesn't make sense why he did the things he did, but you authorized the removal at the time. That should have been the first time the klaxons started to blare.

Spilt milk and all, but the time to research someone would be before you go there - did you do this with the other places you checked with?

At this point, without someone you trust, who may be competent, you have a twin engine boat with one engine, that you didn't feel confident in working on (for decent reasons). How do you plan to part it out, if you go that route?

It doesn't sound like you can, or want to, go the route of getting it back to running condition. What's your answer to that point? Responding with repair ideas by us is useless, if you don't want to fix it.

 

[mtnbike03]

You're chasing rainbows right now. Info is all over the place about what's going on with the boat, or unclear.

This doesn't matter, at this point, but to at least "bright side" any of this, you now have some experience that SHOULD start tripping alarm bells and klaxons going off when facing similar situations in the future, if you just slow down your thought process to avoid overwhelming yourself

1 - where's the pulled engine? It doesn't seem clear to me where it is, or who has it (this goes for the boat too - does this guy still have it?)

2 - ALL communication should be in writing for future repairs, as it sounds like you don't really have a strong case to sue the shit outta this guy

3 - you're looking at a rebuild or replacement of an engine - SAME issue you had when you took it to Mr Shady. What was YOUR thought process at the time?

It doesn't make sense why he did the things he did, but you authorized the removal at the time. That should have been the first time the klaxons started to blare.

Spilt milk and all, but the time to research someone would be before you go there - did you do this with the other places you checked with?

At this point, without someone you trust, who may be competent, you have a twin engine boat with one engine, that you didn't feel confident in working on (for decent reasons). How do you plan to part it out, if you go that route?

It doesn't sound like you can, or want to, go the route of getting it back to running condition. What's your answer to that point? Responding with repair ideas by us is useless, if you don't want to fix it.

We have the pulled engine so that's good. I demanded it back after he said he needed to pull parts off of it but previously he told us the new engine would be all plug and play. I think I found a honest and good mechanic an hour away that is willing to look at both engines and tell me the best path forward. He thinks the ECU went bad which caused the injector to go bad and flood the engine with fuel. The previous mechanic told us that the ECU was fine but this new mechanic said that the fuel injector going bad is because of the ECU going out.

Right now, I think this is our plan forward:

- take it to new mechanic. He is going to check out the working engine and ECU and let us know how those look (we don't trust the previous guy telling us it was all good).
- If all is good, he said he can look at the ECU on the engine with issues and break the engine down for ~$450 and let us know what needs to be replaced.
- He said it will most likely need a new ECU ($500 he found) and then he can work on getting an estimate on if we should repair the engine or just get a new one all together. He told me SBT will not offer a warranty a refurbished engine going into boats so he recommended getting an engine out of another ski or boat.

I'm hoping shady mechanic was dishonest and the issues we are having will actually not require a whole new engine. But that's just very wishful thinking at this point. We do want to keep the boat but do not want to keep running into expensive issues.

 

[Beachbummer]

SBT does offer a warranty, but it's parts only, so the labor costs to replace if it fails are on the buyer. If you can source a better engine by all means do that.

Best of luck!