Jet drive picking up pine needles

[kend301]

I bought a 94 Bayliner Reflexx with a 90 hp sport jet engine that had been swamped . I got it running and learned alot about the boat. It runs fine and does 37 mph BUT I am having a problem with the jet pick up , I have to idle in a no wake zone for a mile to get to the open water and there are pine needles everywhere in the canal this time of year . They collect on the pick up grate and when I hit open water the boat just vibrates as the engine races. I have removed them several times and the boat runs fine again but removal requires me to go back home and pull the boat out of the water .Tried reverse and shutting the engine down .. no luck Has anyone tried a filter screen on the pick up gate ?

 

[BeaufortTJustice]

Re: Jet drive picking up pine needles

I feel your pain...the fire dept. that I work for has a rescue boat with a 90hp Honda outboard jet drive. We use it on a river in our jurisdiction and have the same problem. It sucks all kinds of debris and trash onto the intake grate. We have contacted the dealer we bought it from and they are supposedly looking into a solution but have not heard back yet from them. I'll be following this thread closely to see what other boaters recommend. Good luck!

 

[And-Con]

Re: Jet drive picking up pine needles

Hate to break it to you but when i got my jet boat (four winns fling) the po left a small rake in the engine compartment. if there is a better way to avoid that i would be interested, but i still haven't gotten mine on the water yet, so i will just assume that's what the rake was for but i don't know for sure

 

[zzzzz]

Re: Jet drive picking up pine needles

ya' can't really put any kind of screen on the intake of ANY jet drive as it will restrict the flow of water through the jet pump which will affect the propulsion

 

[kend301]

Re: Jet drive picking up pine needles

Thanks for all who tried to help , But as is posted this is one of the quirks of the jet drive The rake is a good idea , I have already bent a copper pipe and installed a small rake head on it so I can clean the drive grate from the boat. I did get a hold of someone in NY who tried screens and when he put small enough screen on the boat would just cavitate above 1/2 throttle .
I have found the best way to "clean" the grate is to get the boat to about 15-20 mph (at no more than 1/2 throttle) and kill the engine letting the wake catch the rear of the boat, This kind of back flushes the jet drive and actually helps quite a bit but after that I still use the rake .

Thanks again for everyone's help ...

 

[boatflipper]

Re: Jet drive picking up pine needles

I had a similar problen with my 2004 Sea Doo GTI RFI. Lake Cumberland in KY has a barge with a wood chipper on it that scoops up floating wood and chips it but-it throws the chips back in the water!! I would think they would put it in some sort of container and give it away as mulch or somethin...anyway my Sea Doo would do the shake n race thing too. The only thing I did was shut it off and let it sit for maybe 5-10 minutes. I guess the wood chips just eventually floated out...