Jet Ski Engine Bites the Dust
Posted by mjpete on Jun 25, 2010
One of the jet skis has been having engine problems. Initially the engine was very hard to start. It would turnover easy enough, but wouldn’t fire. After cleaning the carbs, the engine would start, but then it would backfire and stall. After backfiring and stalling twice I though I would pull the top end apart to see if something was wrong.
Well, it turned out that one piston threw a ring. The piston and cylinder walls were torn apart pretty bad. AS you can see the left piston is a total wreck versus the new piston that is replacing it. Fortunately the crank shaft was in great shape. So I m now rebuilding the top end of the engine. The engines in the skis, because of the beating they take, are designed to make top end rebuilds pretty easy. I bought the top end kit from SBT. Their kit includes the cylinders, pistons, rings, wrist pins, bearings and gaskets. While I was replacing a good portion of the engine I decided to rebuild the rest of the ski. I’ve replaced all the fuel and water lines. Putting in a new starter. Installing new wear ring and impeller on the jet pump.
I also had a seized engine that came from my “parts” ski. Since I was pulling one engine apart, I decided to take a shot at pulling the seized engine apart. The one cylinder / piston came apart easily enough. The seized piston one ended up coming out in pieces. Once I had 1/2 of the piston removed, the rest finally pulled away from the cylinder wall and fell apart. In the photo I have both engines with the top end off each. With a little effort I think I can get the seized engine back together working.
Of course it is little bothersome to see one of your favorite toys in pieces on the garage floor. But with a little luck it’ll be back in the water shortly.
Jill’s Communion
Posted by mjpete on May 29, 2009
I was not ready to see Jill in a white dress for her First Holy Communion. My little girl is not so little anymore! The Communion was really nice. Our new pastor led the service. It was great to see the excitement in the kids.
Afterwards we had an afternoon party at The Forge with the family and some very close friends. The DJ was the same person we used for Jill’s 2 year old birthday. I got to have a Father Daughter dance, which was really nice. I think I enjoyed the dance more than Jill!
Grrrr – I was klutzy this weekend
Posted by mjpete on Mar 8, 2009
Saturday it was beautiful here on the Jersey Shore. The temp was in the 70’s with blue sky. I decided to work on the one Jetski. I still have the engine apart because of the cracked water jacket. I have two new water jackets with the exhaust manifold all ready to go on. Cylinders are all honed. I cut the rave exhaust valves to clear the pistons. Everything was all set.
As I was setting the water jackets on the lower half of the engine, I let one piston slip and hit the exhaust baffle. Boop went a piece of the ring on the one piston. Damn. Now I’m waiting until March 20th when the new rings should arrive. After the incident I decided to replace all the rings in the engine.
After I messed up the piston ring, I decided to replace the VTS motor. This is a small electric motor that raises and lowers the angle of the jet pump. The old motor had died and the case was corroded. It was easy to replace. Now I have to wait to finish getting the engine back together before I can test the VTS motor.
I fully expect to have both machines back into the water before this month is over. I’m just very frustrated with myself for being a damn klutz.
The Home Network
Posted by mjpete on Mar 8, 2009
Lately I’ve been on a kick upgrading the computers in the house. Most of the machines are dual Xeons with 4Gb or 8Gb of ram. I just added a 1.5Tb drive to one machine that was running out of space. It had a 40gb drive in it and it was full. I went through looking to dump what ever I could, but it only amounted to a few Gb free.
I also had to add a 8-port switch. I have a 16-port switch downstairs where I have the server gear, but I need more ports in the den. I’m wondering if it was a good idea to go with the 8-port switch and not the 16-port switch. At the time the store I was in only had the 8-port switch and I didn’t feel like driving around.
The one purchase that I made that has just proven itself to be so valuable was a D-Link print server. It can handle up to 4 printers. I know, it was a simply thing to add, but what a difference to be able to print from anywhere. I’ve got the laser printer and the Epson photo printer attach to it. The only bummer is that I have to go into the den to turn the printers on if I want to print. A lot of the times I’m in the family room with the laptop and have to walk to the other end of the house. Yes, on occasion I get lazy and yell for one of the kids to turn on the printer or retrieve the printouts for me.
The one box that I haven’t upgrade is the Apple G4. I did add some ram to bump it to 4Gb. That box has found some new life with my daughter. She likes to play her games on it. She likes the idea of having a machine that is basically only used by her.
That leads me to another thought. I am amazed at the kids. I have XP, Vista, Mac OS X and Fedora Linux in the house on various machines. Majority of the boxes run Linux, from Fedora Core 5 to Fedora 10. But it doesn’t matter to them. They jump from box to box without thinking about the operating system. Most adults I know have issues running a single operating system. Not them. Its seamless to them. I cant help but wonder what the technology will be like when they are adults and start having difficulty adopting to it.
Christmas Eve Dinner
Posted by mjpete on Jan 6, 2009
Christmas Eve dinner was extra special this year. We had shrimp scampi in a white wine sauce over linguini. What made it extra special was that MJ cooked the entire meal by himself. Every time Cathy or I tried to enter the kitchen to help, we were shoo’d out. He did a fantastic job. The shrimp were cooked just the right amount. The white wine sauce and linguini were perfect.Metropolitan Museum
Posted by mjpete on Nov 19, 2008
For our 15th wedding anniversary Cathy & I wanted to do something unique, something we normally wouldn’t think of doing. I don’t remember how we came up with the idea, we found the Guarneri String Quartet playing at the Metropolitan Museum. It was a fabulous time.
We spent a few hours roaming through the Met taking in the different exhibits. The Monet exhibit is still one of my favorites. I always enjoy seeing how Monet’s work progressed over time and evolved into what we consider the impressionist movement. To make the night really different we decided to have dinner in the Trustees Dinning Room. The Met has several options for dining. The Trustee Dining is typically reserved for the Trustees and members of the museum. With the tickets to the Quartet, we were also able to get reservations into this 5-Star restaurant.
The concert was really cool. We were able to get stage seats. The museum has about 60 seats up on the stage around the musicians. The concert hall held about 500 people and was sold out. We were within 20 feet of the musicians. It was great to be so close. It felt like we were a part of the concert and not just listening.
Pumpkin Carving
Posted by mjpete on Oct 25, 2008
As the kids get older Pumpkin carving takes on a different dimension in the Petersen household. Every year the carvings get more elaborate and I actually have less to do. We have several of the carving kits that allow you to saw the pumpkins while following a picture. This year Jill went with a very traditional carving, but she insisted that she could do the whole thing by herself. And you want to know something, she was right. MJ went with a witch riding a broomstick with a half moon in the background. For some reason we didn’t capture a picture of it. Although it really came out great!
