2021 sea doo spark leaking

[alexvett21]

So I just took my new sea doo out of storage, decided to put an exhaust on it. I then filled up my hull with water to check for leaks. I noticed I am actually leaking water from the right hull reinforcement board underneath. Its nothing major but it does drip a lot when the hull has water in it. Any idea whats it could be?

[K447]

Welcome.

On a Spark the engine cooling uses (one of) the long aluminum sections attached to the underside of the hull. The metal board is the cooling plate for the circulating engine coolant.

It sounds like there is a leakage path from the inside of the hull to the outside perhaps where the engine coolant fittings to/from that aluminum plate connect inside the hull.

… new sea doo out of storage … filled up my hull with water to check for leaks.

… leaking water from the right hull reinforcement board underneath….

[alexvett21]

Welcome.

On a Spark the engine cooling uses two long aluminum sections attached to the underside of the hull. Those boards are the cooling plates for the circulating engine coolant.

It sounds like there is a leakage path from the inside of the hull to the outside perhaps where the engine coolant fittings to/from that aluminum plate connect inside the hull.

Ok, thanks. Tomorrow I will try to find it. Hopefully its an easy fix

[RXP-SWE]

It's actually only one of those aluminum plates that is a heat exhanger, can't remember if it's the right or the left one, I think it's the left one, the other one is just a dummy without connections.

Under them you have bolts for the engine mounts, they go through the hull, I think it's at least four on each side. If it's on the side without heat exhanger I guess those bolts are the only way it could leak, unless you have a crack in the hull somewhere. If it's on the side with the actual heat exhanger you also have two large holes through the hull for the bosses for the coolant hoses that potentially could leak.

I guess it leaks enough for it not to only be water trapped behind the aluminum plate? And it's not coolant?

[beaver6713]

My 2015’s did this same thing. I had the dealer repair them. They did a shitty job. Sold them and bought a svho Yamaha. Best move I ever made imo

[ramjam]

How did it go, Alex? I had the same thing happen (also commented on your post in the Sea-Doo Spark forum).

Unfortunately, it's a lot of disassembly to get to the heat exchanger, requiring removal of the engine mounts. I was able to remove the engine mounts without completely removing the engine, but I did have to remove the jet pump assembly and loosen all of the engine mounts, so I could pry the engine up with a breaker bar, enough to get the bottom half of the engine mounts over the hull reinforcement studs.

Also, make sure you use plenty of gasket maker or whatever type of sealant you're using, around the coolant pipes. Unlike the mounting studs, there is a huge gap between the mating surfaces, and if you don't have enough sealant around the coolant pipes, the gap will not be sealed. I used a whole tube of Permatex Right Stuff to fill the gap around the pipes alone.

[RXP-SWE]

I have the same issue on mine now, it's leaking through the hull where the heat exchanger pipes are, lot's of work ahead

[RXP-SWE]

I sealed the leak by the heat exchanger following the instructions in the shop manual. Quite a lot of work since you need to remove the engine mounts and you need heat proof selant, the manual calls for Loctite 5900 and that stuff is really expensive.

Worst thing was that once I had finnished the work and took it for a test ride I still got wather in the hull. Since I saw no other leaks by filling the hull with water on land, I pulled the top deck off and put it in the water, when I started the engine I saw dripping from the drive shaft rubber boot. So I pulled the PTO cover and inspected the seals, I have the old style with two water seals and one oil seal and the water seals were in pretty bad shape. The maintenance schedule says to replace them every 200h without a yearly limit, mine had about 190h on it now but it's from 2015 so maybe they should have a yearly limit as well.

Fortunately the PTO sleve had no corrosion on it so I could juste replace the seals and put everything back together. This was extra fortunate since I don't have the replacable PTO sleve that came on late 2016 models.