Bought my first watercraft: Kawasaki Ultra LX (1500cc)

Bought this machine in Vegas last week, We spent ~2-3 hours in Meade checking it out with no issues. Water was choppy, so we never got above 40-45mph.

Today, we took it to Utah Lake. I took it out first, got up to about 35mph (real choppy today), no issues.

I made the real mistake of letting my son take it out solo. He was gone a good 90 minutes. He came back and beached it. The wife and I decided to take it out. Not 500' after leaving the no wake zone, we knew something was wrong. I couldn't get above 20mph and it felt like it was misfiring. A few minutes later, we got the OILH (engine oil hot); shut it down a minute, them limped back to the dock. We loaded it back up on the trailer and went home.

Spark plugs only had ~3 hours on them, but I replaced anyway. I check the oil while hot and it seemed low. Once home, I connected the hose, fired it up, added oil until it was at the appropriate level, but on land, no way to know if just a low engine oil issue (doubtful).

So, either my kid overdid it at WOT or he ingested something into the intake causing a blockage in either air or water flow.

Anybody have insight on this issue?

If he beached it he probably sucked sand into the intake and clogged the waterpassages. FWIW - I owned jetski's for 10 years and this is pretty common if you beach them.

I still have a Yamaha, after beaching, take out a few feet from shore and with nose pointed out, push the back end under water several times, that helps flush debris from intake.

I would more guess that he flipped it and the motor ingested some water.
Remove plugs and crank over for 15-20 secs. at a time.

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Originally Posted by Iceaxe

If he beached it he probably sucked sand into the intake and clogged the waterpassages. FWIW - I owned jetski's for 10 years and this is pretty common if you beach them.

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Best method to flush out? Hose into the water intake at the front/top of the machine (used to fire it up when on land)?

Understand I know little about your specific brand and model. But the basic idea is to make certain your Jetski is sucking water and passing it through the system as intended. On mine I would do this by connecting a hose near the intake to a fitting used to start and run them on dry land, then make sure water is passing through the system as intended. If it's not passing water it becomes an exercise is disassembling and finding the blockage.

What oldno7 describes is pretty much how we started ours any time they were beached. But that only clears the intake of debris from sliding on the beach with a dead engine. If your kid beached it with a running engine debris gets sucked much deeper into the system. The good news is this is not a common problem unless someone beaches it with a running engine.

Sounds like an overheat. When the engine overheats, the temp sensor will shut down one of the cylinders to prevent further over heating. This is caused by either sand in the intake line which clogs the water line into the heads to keep it cool. Or, it could also be due to an over worked impeller shaft due to something in the intake and preventing free turning of the impeller shaft.
1) Hook the ski up to your hose as if you were going to flush the ski.
2) Start the motor and then run the hose with the engine compartment open.
3) You should have some exhaust water vents on the outside of the ski (I think on the LX it's on the right side-port). Water should be coming out of that port, if it isn't, then you have debris or sand in your cooling line. If water is flowing and eventually turns warm as the engine continues to run, then it is doing it's job.
4) Turn off the water and flush the remaining water out of the ski by blipping the throttle a few times.
5) get under the ski and examine the intake. Use a flashlight and check all the way up to the impeller and back to the housing where it exits the hull. Make sure there is no plastic or fishing line in there. If that is clear, then...
6) Find the point where the impeller mates to the motor inside the engine compartment. Try turning the impeller shaft by hand. There will be some resistance, but you should be able to turn it by hand.
Not sure where the cooling line is on the Kawi, but follow the line from the exhaust port to the head, and see if there is another line coming in from back by the impeller shaft, that's usually the intake line. Pull the end that goes into the head, and blow on the line. Shouldn't be any obstructions.

Get it figured out yet?

I'm curious when he beached it, was he running the throttle all the way up to the beach, or did he coast in?

What was the shoreline like, sand or weeds?