Iv had alot of stand ups and have a heavily modded 01 RN SJ and a stock 04 RN SJ and just rode the 04 stocker for the first time and was really impressed with the power it had! I'm starting to wonder if the headache of aftermarket parts are really worth it...I think maybe milling the stock head and adding an impeller wouldn't be far off a pipe SJ really...just my 2 sence...iv never rode a stock SJ before and was really impressed
The only thing that situation says to me is that your '01 modded SJ was either broken or horribly tuned.
I have a 2004 SJ. Stock it cavitated continuously. With the intake and prop, the cavitation stopped, but it handled like crap. With the destroyers, Dominator ride plate and rear sponsons, it handled pretty great but it had no hit, wasn't that fast, and took a fair amount of time to get going, it sucked in the surf with no giddy-up (even when I took off the longer ride plate and rear sponsons. Had the T-screws in the carbs and it was dialed in pretty good (until the
ty SBT rebuild kits started leaking, buy genuine mikuni!)
I just tore it all down, put on MSD enhancer, #ZERO lightweight flywheel, ADA girlded head 180 PSI, B-pipe limited (damaged head pipe, top 2 screws closed, bottom wide open), jetworks flow control, dual stage reeds, reed stuffers, stock airbox -1 screen, properly jetted, -3 pole, Cold fusion throttle with oversized cable...
I just started tuning it. It still has a bog in the bottom and I'm afraid to run it wide open because I need more testing (Ran it wide open about 1/8 mile and plugs were a nice brown color). A lot more tuning is necessary to get it perfect and I can't even tune the pipe.
My ski has WAY more snap off the bottom and that's easing into it because the bottom is still a tad lean and my popoff is 53 (kept stock pop-off). I haven't GPS'ed it but I'm sure it's at least 5mph. Speed is kind of irrelevant, except I have it propped to be good all-around. It gets to 45mph in far less time than it did before. It feels 100 lbs lighted coming off the wake because when I squeeze the throttle, a whole lot more happens. Long story short, poorly tuned, it rips compared to stock.
I'm not bragging about how awesome my ski is, because it is just set up as an every-day limited class ski set up for all around riding, so it's not great for the surf or racing, but good enough for both.
My point is, if you can compared your "Heavily modified '01" to your "all stock '04", then you '01 wasn't "heavily modified", it just had a bunch of expensive parts slapped on it doing a whole lot of nothing.
