- Location
- Buffalo, NY
After I completely rebuilt my first 'Blaster and did a 718 Jetmaniac ported 61X/61X, I completely fell in love with it. I spent my last two Summers on Lake Erie and smaller inland lakes around the Buffalo, NY area learning how much fun the 'Blaster is. It does everything that I want to do and it's the most fun I could ever hope to have on the water. And I met a lot of great new friends (most of you guys are here on this site). Soooooooooo, after reading on the forums about 'Blasters with triples swapped in them, I decided this would be my next project. In this build I'll to my best to show my detailed, step by step write up for doing a YAMAHA 1100 TRIPLE swap into a 'Blaster.
Back in September, I bought a 1995 Yamaha Wave Raider 1100 at a garage sale for $200. I LOVE the quote one of you guys here on the site had on your signature line, "Everyone hates a couch, until it's time for an engine swap." Anyway, the guy selling the Raider said it ran, which was true, but after tearing it apart I have no idea how it ran with the internals in the condition that they were in.........the rear cylinder had a melted down piston with a skirt that was completely cracked off on one side. We pushed the Raider in the back of my truck and when I got it home I pulled the engine. I sold the gauges off it for nearly $300 so I was already ahead on the build. This Raider also proved to be a gold mine of parts that I'd later need for my build that are interchangeable with the 'Blaster.
Next, a couple weeks later I found a nice 1995 'Blaster with no engine (6.5 hours away from me, each way) for a decent price. There were some small parts here and there missing, but it was in pretty decent shape, so I didn't really mind.
My goal for this build is to have a fast, reliable 'Blaster that is VERY well put together (almost like Yamaha would have/could have done it from the factory) and NOT cobbed together. I've seen some very nice 'Blaster triple swaps, and some that looked, let's just say not very good. I went over every piece of my first 'Blaster and no detail was overlooked and it's proven to be reliable as any brand new machine out there. I want to do the same with this build......sorry if this gets long winded.
Here's the first step of the many that I'll be posting and probably the most difficult............the exhaust. The rear exhaust/waterbox was probably the most time consuming part of this build. Measure twice, cut once, more like measure a dozen and half times, sweat profusely, cut once, hope for the best. I have already torn the engine apart, so I had to roughly put it back together to measure where the exhaust was to cut the 5" hole in the firewall (which I ended up elongating to an oval so it would fit. I used a 5" holesaw and then a jigsaw to do this. Once that hole was cut, I trimmed a little bit off the rear of the rubber hose that goes from the stinger of the pipe to the waterbox. The waterbox that I'm using is the left side stock waterbox from the 1100 'Raider. Next, I defoamed the rear of the 'Blaster. A lot of it was done by the previous owner, luckily, but I still had a good bit to do, and yes, it was as big of a pain in the a$$ as everyone says. I got the waterbox secured down with the stock 'Raider 1100 rubber strap and hooks and attached them to the bottom of the hull with Thrust Innovations stainless steel circular plates with nuts in the center of them and used Loctite Marine Epoxy to attach them to the hull. Now here's the part that took a lot of thinking/measuring/swearing. I wanted to use the stock fire extinguisher tube and battery box and have a pipe that goes up over the pump tunnel so water didn't fill the waterbox when I'm stopped in the water. I used the stock 'Raider 1100 rubber pipe/hose that connects the left waterbox to the right waterbox. I trimmed a couple inches off the side that attaches to the right side waterbox and then got a stainless steel 3.5" connector fitting to attach that end into a silicone 90 degree elbow that is 3.5" on one end and 3" on the other. I only used the left side 'Raider waterbox so the end of this elbow will attach into my rear exhaust tube. For that, I used the 3" Wat-Con rear exhaust for 'Blaster triple swaps. I had to cut a few inches off the end of the tube for it to fit properly on the silicone 90 degree elbow. Then finally out back after I got all my holes drilled for the rear exhaust in the hull, I cut a rubber gasket for the flange out of 1/16" Plumb Pak from Lowes. I then used 3M 4200 for additional seal and adhesion.
Back in September, I bought a 1995 Yamaha Wave Raider 1100 at a garage sale for $200. I LOVE the quote one of you guys here on the site had on your signature line, "Everyone hates a couch, until it's time for an engine swap." Anyway, the guy selling the Raider said it ran, which was true, but after tearing it apart I have no idea how it ran with the internals in the condition that they were in.........the rear cylinder had a melted down piston with a skirt that was completely cracked off on one side. We pushed the Raider in the back of my truck and when I got it home I pulled the engine. I sold the gauges off it for nearly $300 so I was already ahead on the build. This Raider also proved to be a gold mine of parts that I'd later need for my build that are interchangeable with the 'Blaster.
Next, a couple weeks later I found a nice 1995 'Blaster with no engine (6.5 hours away from me, each way) for a decent price. There were some small parts here and there missing, but it was in pretty decent shape, so I didn't really mind.
My goal for this build is to have a fast, reliable 'Blaster that is VERY well put together (almost like Yamaha would have/could have done it from the factory) and NOT cobbed together. I've seen some very nice 'Blaster triple swaps, and some that looked, let's just say not very good. I went over every piece of my first 'Blaster and no detail was overlooked and it's proven to be reliable as any brand new machine out there. I want to do the same with this build......sorry if this gets long winded.
Here's the first step of the many that I'll be posting and probably the most difficult............the exhaust. The rear exhaust/waterbox was probably the most time consuming part of this build. Measure twice, cut once, more like measure a dozen and half times, sweat profusely, cut once, hope for the best. I have already torn the engine apart, so I had to roughly put it back together to measure where the exhaust was to cut the 5" hole in the firewall (which I ended up elongating to an oval so it would fit. I used a 5" holesaw and then a jigsaw to do this. Once that hole was cut, I trimmed a little bit off the rear of the rubber hose that goes from the stinger of the pipe to the waterbox. The waterbox that I'm using is the left side stock waterbox from the 1100 'Raider. Next, I defoamed the rear of the 'Blaster. A lot of it was done by the previous owner, luckily, but I still had a good bit to do, and yes, it was as big of a pain in the a$$ as everyone says. I got the waterbox secured down with the stock 'Raider 1100 rubber strap and hooks and attached them to the bottom of the hull with Thrust Innovations stainless steel circular plates with nuts in the center of them and used Loctite Marine Epoxy to attach them to the hull. Now here's the part that took a lot of thinking/measuring/swearing. I wanted to use the stock fire extinguisher tube and battery box and have a pipe that goes up over the pump tunnel so water didn't fill the waterbox when I'm stopped in the water. I used the stock 'Raider 1100 rubber pipe/hose that connects the left waterbox to the right waterbox. I trimmed a couple inches off the side that attaches to the right side waterbox and then got a stainless steel 3.5" connector fitting to attach that end into a silicone 90 degree elbow that is 3.5" on one end and 3" on the other. I only used the left side 'Raider waterbox so the end of this elbow will attach into my rear exhaust tube. For that, I used the 3" Wat-Con rear exhaust for 'Blaster triple swaps. I had to cut a few inches off the end of the tube for it to fit properly on the silicone 90 degree elbow. Then finally out back after I got all my holes drilled for the rear exhaust in the hull, I cut a rubber gasket for the flange out of 1/16" Plumb Pak from Lowes. I then used 3M 4200 for additional seal and adhesion.
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