gli_ryan

I'm trying to get this 91 550sx to running condition again. Water was found in the case and cylinders. All surfaces have been checked for warping and haven't found anything. I've looked for cracks everywhere and haven't found anything. I replaced all of the gaskets and cleaned all the mating surfaces. When put back together it still fill up with water.

I rechecked everything and still haven't found the culprit. I put the exhaust together on it's own and ran water though it and found it came back down the exhaust ports where the cylinders would be, now I don't know if that would happen if the motor was running and exhaust gases were flowing through it, but either way I thought that might have been a clue. It wasn't like it was rushing out, but it did make its way there. I tried having the exhust at different degrees of tilt but it still seemed to do it.

I pulled it apart and checked the surfaces for flatness and found them to be flat. I took some copper gasket sealer and added that to all the gaskets and retorqued to 20 ftlbs. Let it sit for a bit to cure more and tried it again with the same results. Water leaking into where the exhaust ports are.

I had put water in the one exhaust pipe thats just an elbow that goes from the first part of the pipe to the upper chamber to see if it was leaking but didn't find any leaks.

I'm seriously out of ideas. I've searched and haven't really found anything similar.

p10sdad

Does this happen at the lake, or when your hooked to the hose?

gli_ryan

Honestly I don't know. I got this thing non running, or running really rough. I found a case full of water. It was torn down, looked over and gaskets replaced. At the lake I couldn't get the motor to really turn over. I thought it was the battery but with trying to jump start it it still wouldn't hardly turn over. I had the plugs out but don't remember there being water in it.

At the garage with the hose on it and water sitting in it it at some point did fill the motor. But before noticing that I had pulled the starter off thinking that it was weak since with the plugs out the motor would turn over but with the plugs in it would not hardly turn over at all. After putting it back on the motor was still not turning over. Back to the water, I don't think the pressure was on long but I wasn't controlling the water at that point. And after putting the starter back on is when I found a motor full of water.

So the motor is apart again…and the agony continues.

gli_ryan

I got it to stop getting water inside the motor now, used copper gasket sealer on everything when I put it back together today. I'm not sure what did it, maybe it was fine all along and it just filled up with water when the hose was hooked up to it, I wasn't controlling it so idk how much pressure was going through it when it was off.

There is still a problem with it running. I started out by noticing that the venturi in the carb would pour gas out after a couple seconds of running or turning over. So that came apart, found new diaphragms in the fuel pump. Also found the spring for the needle and seat to be missing. Was given one that was supposed to work, maybe this is now my problem but it seemed to fit and control the needle well. I think the pump was put back together incorrectly, so I followed this diagram to put it back together
1990 Kawasaki 550SX (JS550B1) Parts, 1990 Kawasaki 550SX (JS550B1) OEM Parts - BikeBandit.com

It now will run, but it is very hard to start. And a couple times when it was running it would start running poorly and die if left idling. The plugs are new and have been swapped to other ones to make sure they were not the problem.

I also have the needle jets set out about one turn for all three, that is what I found the stock settings were supposed to be. Any validation to that? Also possibilities that I have in my head are bad gas, but at least half of it is fresh in the tank, and maybe still something wrong the fuel pump. Compression is about 90psi, which is low but I don't think low enough to completely eliminate starting. Is 120 psi stock for these?

p10sdad

Tweek on the carb a bit with your jets and a rebuild kit. Don't turn the hose on unless you have the ski running, and turn the hose off before you kill the engine. Water will go into your motor if it's not running

gli_ryan

Yeah thats what I've been doing with the hose.

I've tried quite a few different settings with the jets so far, but apparently I'm still missing something. I'll be trying new gas in the next day or two.

p10sdad

What oil and ratio are you running?

gli_ryan

its about 40:1

junebug

going through the carbs make sure you use thin wire fishing leader and go through each hole and check the pop off pressure borrow one if you have too find the minkue carb site the have pop off specs and other adjustments without doing pop off ck if the oring is leaking youll never no i had a brand new one leak

gli_ryan

How does one understand what you're trying to say if they can't tell where your ideas start and end? The lack of punctuation hurts my brain.