Blaster Rick's Detailed 1100 Blaster Conversion

[ItsRixter]

I had a Blaster hull sitting around for years. I finally got around to listing it on Craigslist a few years ago.

When the potential buyer told me his plans of dropping a 1100 triple in it, the hull was no longer for sale..LOL. The hull sat around again.

I did a lot of homework before I started. I compared motors (Yamaha vs Kawi as well as year) conversion kits, mods, and general parts vs parts. So I thought I'd put all of this in one thread.

So here goes........

 

[ItsRixter]

Okay, starting off with my neglected WB1 hull. Took it to my brother's house. Hosed it off. Then started stripping down.

 

[ItsRixter]

A bit sun faded..

It had some old beach house sponsons from it race days. I broke one side wave jumping this ski back in the day. Screws were NOT stainless. Taking these off will leave some nice holes to patch.

 

[ItsRixter]

I'm not going to repeat the WB1 engine removal steps but you can see it here:
Clink on this link:
http://www.x-h2o.com/threads/61887

 

[ItsRixter]

When I told my ski it was getting an 1100 conversion, it got a little excited and started to sport a woodie



Seriously, since this was going to have the rear exhaust installed, I had to remove the fire extinguisher.

 

[ItsRixter]

This hull had a nice Riva rear exhaust installed. Unfortunately, the 1100 conversion requires two things. First, a larger diameter exhaust, next the outlet on the opposite site. The stock exhaust (including the Riva rear exhaust mod) is on the left side. So not only will I have to remove the rear exhaust kit, but also patch it. More work!!

 

[ItsRixter]

I decided on using the Kawi motor for the conversion. The two key reasons were both around the pipe. I had a 1999 GP1200 way back when. That pipe was HUGE. I didn't really want that big heavy pipe. The Kawi pipe was not only smaller with a lower center of gravity but my research found the Kawi pipe can be modified into a dry pipe with significant gains. (Thanks Scottie Mac for the info). The only real benefit of the Yamaha motor I found was the Mikuni 44 carbs were better than the Kawi...however, those Mikuni carbs could be retrofitted onto the Kawi if you wanted. The last part about the motor selection was making sure to get a 96-97 Kawi 1100. These had better carbs. Kawasaki switched to CV (Constant Velocity) carbs after 97, which are not that great.

So I found the perfect donor ski on Craigslist. A Nevada fresh water 1996 Kawasaki ZXI 1100. The hull was banged up, which I didn't care about, but gave me something to negotiate a better deal.

 

[ItsRixter]

Bingo...an aftermarket head. Light compression, still uses pump gas. 125 psi on each cylinder.

 

[ItsRixter]

Removing the 1100 out of the ZXI is pretty easy. I wanted to just disconnect from the hull but not disconnect electronics from the motor itself.


Unbolt the ebox

 

[ItsRixter]

Disconnect from the wiring harness (instrument cluster connection)

 

[ItsRixter]

Remove carb covers...lots of bolts

 

[Kohldanielzimmer]

Seems like a great project. I've been thinking about a triple ski at some point in the future. Keep up with the detailed pics.

 

[Quinc]

tag!

 

[ItsRixter]

Air box removed

 

[ItsRixter]

After pulling the carbs, I immediately stuffed the intake with paper towels so bolts or other parts do not fall into the motor. Now you can see the motor mount bolts are easy access. Next I start removing exhaust on the other side of the engine.

 

[ItsRixter]

Took the head pipe (top portion of pipe) off and SURPRISE! With all used skis, there is always a surprise. Mine was two busted bolts which hold the lower pipe chamber onto the exhaust manifold. D@mn it.

 

[ItsRixter]

Normally you would have to remove two bolts for the lower chamber, since mine were broken, I just had to disconnect the cooling line and tail end of the exhaust from the hose. Again I stuff paper towels into the exhaust opening to keep parts from falling in.

 

[ItsRixter]

Now all the top (single) motor mount bolts are exposed and easily removable. Pull the heart out of this bitch!

Now you see one bolt is broken deep into the exhaust manifold, the other not as bad since the shaft is exposed. I can grind that one on two sides and get a grip on it with an adjustable wrench. Screw extractor for the other one. F!
Likely have to torch the crap out of both broken bolts also.

Next, disconnect the battery cables and oops the cooling line to the front of the motor!

 

[ItsRixter]

I'm trying to make this easy and keep the electrical together with the motor. Throw the ebox on top of the motor and put it aside

 

[crazy4sand]

Wow in great detail looking forward to see it complete I have a b1 hull that I hope to turn into a triple some day