Deep Sixed My Warrior what about life afterwards

[kinghooker]

Well my short ride on Saturday came a halt when I stopped the sled on the ice at camp and then my #*$&@ end broke through and all I could do is roll off the sled and watch it sink. What a shitty feeling that is but I dragged my #*$&@ out of there walked away with no damage to myself. Now the question.... it's getting pulled out today but what should I be looking for ie total writeoff, it was running when it went under from what I can remember. Like I said I had just stopped and boom I was in water no trying to gun it or anything. It's going into the dealer but do I really want it after it's been under water??? Insurance will have their look but I'm asking anyone with experience what they recommend. Shitty way to end the season but it felt oh so good to punch that throttle coming across the lake.

 

[Roadrunner]

If it was running when it went under the engine is probably junk. The water will cause the engine to hydrolock and bend the rods. It might still run when it is dried out, but the rods will eventually fail.

 

[POWERHAULIC]

Being that it was idleing upon sinking, it very well may be OK. Chances are that it ran out of air before it inhaled enough water to do serious damage.

I dried out an '03 that went under idleing this year, it was fine after several fluid changes to remove all the water. It was nice and clean too :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

I have watched summer lake racing with sleds and seen them go under. The racers pull them out with a boom, dump all the fluids, change plugs, and they go right back at it.

 

[Roadrunner]

Powerhaulic, you might be right because it was idling, but if it was your motor would you take a chance ? If it breaks out of warranty it's going to be expensive. Even under warranty, a good tech might be able to tell if a bent rod caused the rod to break and not allow the claim. I'd try awful hard to get the insurance company to buy it if it was mine.
Sinking a 2-stroke is a lot different than a 4-stroke.
Any good water racer will shut the engine down before it goes under.

 

[jtssrx]

will your insurace cover a unit that went through the ice?

if it's totaled let me know what the buy back is please

 

[MR.HAPPY]

I NEED A WARRIOR SKID!!!
IF YOU TOTAL HER
LET ME KNOW!
BR

 

[nitro]

i lost a 96 storm through the ice and insurance totaled it. I also no of 7 others that went down about the same time and insurance totaled all of them except for the one we could not recover! If you turn it in, the dealer will more than likely want to keep the claim open for a long period of time and the insurance company does not like to do that from what i understand. they would just as soon pay ya off and they can recoup as much as they can selling it for salvage. They get as much as 60 to 70% for salvage on snowmobiles around here. (MN) I try and bid on them as much as i can. I just tried to get an 00 xcr 800 from salvage that went down. I bid 22 and it ended up going for 3350! They gave the owner 4400 less his deductible of 500. (3900).

But remember you don't want to claim it, you can also dry it out yourself and it should last a long time.

 

[Mikey]

The engine wouldnt be effected as much as a 2 stroke would. The 2 stroke uses roller crank bearinds and the four stroke uses babbet bearings. My opinion would be if i had insurance I would pay the differance and get a new one. I would also be the same guy that bought it back from the insurance company and repaired it.

 

[monker]

Even if the engine is ok, there are going to be electrical problems. A sled went under at Otis Res. at the beginning of the season (there's pics on here somewhere). It was recovered and running within a week, but was suffering from electrical problems. In my opinion, there would be a lot of 'mysterious' problem caused by the electrical system. The engine may be ok, but it probably won't run quite right again. Don't forget on the water-crossers, most everything is seald up because they know there's a good chance they're going down.

 

[ReX]

As long as it's idling it will pretty much always stall before sucking water into the cylinders.

We sink our off-road trucks all the time. What happens is the water blocks the flow of air through the carbs and the engine stalls (if it's revved up with lots of throttle it's bad news though). After the engine stalls water flows into the engine through any open valves, etc., eventually getting lots in the crankcase and everywhere else.

As long as you drain the water out of the exhaust, air box, oil tank, chain case, gas tank, etc., change the oil, crank it for a while with the plugs out and then get it running in short order there shouldn't be any damage to the engine.

The bigger problem is upholstry - ie. seat. It takes forever to get water out of foam. It's best to remove the cover if you can and do everything you can to dry out the foam. Expect it to take a long time.

Good luck.

 

[LazyBastard]

Anyone who owns a standup PWC or one of the older XO's or sitdowns(small) knows all about getting water in motors. THE MOTOR IS FINE. It would have to be really screaming to do any damage, and even if it is really screaming, it wouldn't get it *all at once*, it would get a few drips one stroke, a few more the next, and it would die down FAST.

As for electrical... don't worry about it. If someone has electrical problems with a sled after it went down, it would have had the same electrical problems even if it didn't. The wiring is all MARINE GRADE on sleds.

The *ONLY* two things to worry about are these;

1) the gauge - if water got into it, its screwed. Probably did.
2) the seat is screwed.

If your insurance knows about any of this, then you're screwed. NEVER let your insurance know that you did something dumb 'cause they'll jack your rates up or cancel your coverage.

 

[RedRX1]

Lazybastard, I have to agree. I have had a lot of experience with downed engines. If you get them out, dry them out, and get them running, your ok. The trick is, you cant leave them in air for any amount of time without runingn them. Rigamortise sets in.... Rust starts and the electricals break down (dielectrics). If you get them out, pull the plugs, turn them over to discharge the water, and then start them, all is well. Just run them long enough to dry out the electronics as well as the engine. We used to heat cycle them with a couple of oil changes, that way residual moisture is out of the the moving parts.

If this is an excuse for a new sled, fine... usually its no worse abuse wise than a hard ride. It is however, a pain in the a$$.

 

[LazyBastard]

I once got (for free) a '90 Yamaha SJ650 PWC. This was back in '97. It was south FL owned and operated. The owner managed to hydrolock the bottom end of the motor in salt water. The owner wasn't bright enough to pull the reed blocks to spin the water out of it. He had the plugs out and the cover off and parked the thing in his backyard - where it sat for a WHOLE YEAR!

Now, I new about what it had gone through when I grabbed it, and it didn't cost me anything. The real thing was that it came with a trailer and a fully functional WR500.

I took that motor out of the boat and proceeded to take it apart. I literally had to use a crowbar to split the cases, and a sledge hammer to get the pistons out of the cylinders. The cylinders were densly rusted (but not deep - the rust was dense enough to stop further rusting), and the cases were COMPRESSION PACKED with aluminum and iron oxide.

I soaked all the moving parts in furnace oil and worked them until they all moved again. I bought - 1 new piston, 2 sets of rings, 2 wrist pins and 2 wrist bearings. I used epoxy to smooth out the cases that were pitted, and ran a hone over the cylinders, then put it all back together (with all the *heavily* rust pitted crank bearings!!). Cost me $125 CDN. It ran *LIKE THAT* for over a YEAR!! Then one of the lower connecting rod bearings seized up. I decided that I wanted to keep the machine at that point, so I bought a new crankshaft for it, and it has been bulletproof reliable ever since.

 

[JDKRXW]

Once the sled's pulled out of the water, you MUST drain the engine right away and get it running. If you do, your biggest expense will be drying the seat out, but hey, you've got all summer for that!
There's NO WAY you've done crank / rod damage if it went down idling, and NO WAY it's going to be written off by your insurance co.