Freestyle THE Q8 Build

[motozachl]

First off I would like to thank all of those who contributed to my lost ski fund. LINK I appreciate all contributions that were made to help me put this machine together whether it be by donations or discounted parts; scrapping up the cash to support this hobby that I have an addition to has not been an easy task. For those who do not know, my jetski (an elusive modified highroller stunt hull) sank several months ago leaving me with nothing but desperation, depression. A huge two month struggle was put up trying to find my ski yet left empty handed. You can read the search here. Anyways the past is the past and things happen. I am just glad that I did not get injured and alive from those not-so-kind Erie waves.

Onto the NEW! I snatched up this hull (EME Q8 Stalker) a while back on some borrowed money and have been slowly been gathering parts to get this together. I have been able to ride a couple of these hulls, even Eric’s 1200, and the handling is fairly close to what my stunt was. What’s cool about these is that any engine and be thrown into these with the correct adapter plates. Because the funds were low I will just be going with a tried and true ported 701 thus relying on just my skills to do the rest.

The breakdown:
62t/61x ported 701cc
ADA girdled head
Lightened stock flywheel
ATP EPIC
stock 38’s
Coldfusion drive coupler
650sx drive shaft
650sx midshaft housing
skat 145mm setback mag pump
9/15 hooker
bpip mod chamber
ATP waterbox
waverunner 3 exhaust hose
550 fuel tank & westcoast pickups
X-metal scupper
X-Metal Adjustable Handpole
X-Metal Adjustable Steering System



Oh and yes I built this in my living room

 

[chadman154]

congrats

 

[motozachl]

Turf

The first thing I wanted to do was scrap the old turf job and modify the footholds. Got myself a nice sharp chisel and went to town. This went very smooth and felt as if I was an oldschool wood worker with a hand planer lol. I then chopped those 1" 'bumps' off the rear of the foot holds then proceeded to glass it back over. These bumps, if you're not too familiar with the Q8, angle your feet at an odd angle thus I did away with them. I then layed down a nice 1" padding on the bottom and 1" on the underside of the holds. This keeps my feet extra snug and super locked in. Not my best turf job but came out good.












I also added hand warmers of course, the best ever.

 

[mxmat813]

Hey Zach, just wondering why you didn't run the 789 you sold me in this ski?

 

[motozachl]

Engine

Since many of parts I had to grab were cheap, they needed some desparate attention. Luckily a friend of mine was willing to cut me a deal under the circumstances and hooked me up with some powder coating.

They look a bit purple here but its a navy flat blue







Double zip tied the lines, don't want any air bubble in there

 

[motozachl]

Pump

The pump and engine alignment was a royal pain in the ace. Since I have been used to only yamaha platform it took me a bit of research to understand the kawi pump etc. So EME told me to start with the pump side and work my way up. Initially there was a metric ton of RTV from the previous owner to fill gaps around the pump. After a decade I was able to sit the pump back in to check out alignement. Well I had decent gap (hence the previous rtv lol) so I customized the pump holes to shove the pump forward some more to make it a prefect fit. I still did seal around the pump with a sealant, but didn't require much at all.









What a mess



All done and lined up, steering adjusted, grate on.

 

[motozachl]

Waterbox is nicely tucked way up in the nose and secured. I had to use the waverunner hose as an sj hose wasn't long enough.




Decently clean 550 tank fits perfect in this hull and over twice the capacity of those ultra tiny kart tanks. Yamaha cap adds a internal fuel setup




Alignment of the motor was mind boggling since this ski was originally setup for a kawi power plant. I first put the mounts in the stock locations for this hull and they were all over the place when it came time to set in the engine compared to the bed plates. After much googling and asking questions I was still at a loss of how to line up the couplers. The engine was off both sideways, vertically, & slanted at the same time. I had to order some 'conversion plates' from EME. Sorry EME but these conversion plates were a disappoint. They were just pieces of metal. After a million changes I only ended up using one of these plates and then drilling/taping new holes into the under lying hull plates. Engine sits in there perfectly align now!

 

[McDog]

Nice! I have always seen a lot of similarities between the looks of a stunt and eme skis. Interesting that they ride similar. I hope you thrash it to death but never lose it.

 

[motozachl]

Maybe it's just me but I could not for the life of me get any 3/8 cooling line onto the hull fittings. I tried 3 different types of line each with oil up and/or the heat gun. Every time the line wouldn't stretch enough or just split. So I had to make these little conversions.




I got lucky on the pipe not having any stuck screws, however I did need to do a little TLC retap to freshen up the threads.







I then had a headache of trying to get the head pipe to line up with the manifold. No matter what I did, I could not get the chamber to move forward enough to get the head pipe on. I cut as much off as I could on the waterbox coupler and still not enough. I didn't want to cut the chamber at all so my brother let me swap his mod chamber for my limited which gave me just the space I needed. Thanks bro






If you are wondering what these cool little line splitters are well here you go. They can be cut to larger sizes so its kind of like having a mini restrictor in them for the stinger. REALLY COOL




The pipe ended up being a little too close for comfort. Ended up wrapping lots of heat wrap around some turf to dissipate the heat. This should be good enough to keep the pipe from melting the tank.

 

[motozachl]

Everything now fits and looking good, just got to get an ebox made up. I will probably tie the bilge switch into the ebox rather than harnessing off the battery terminals.


Stock airbox = no water intrusion ftw






Definelty need a coupler cover and the bilge!

 

[MADMAT]

:headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang:

 

[clouse22]

Looking good Zach! Glad my old hull could go to a good home!


p.s. I laughed at the silcone comments and apologize for that. That was my middle of the summer hurry up and get back on the water mag pump install.

 

[97superjet]

The flat blue powdercoat looks sick!!

 

[N3vrSat1sfied]

Hell ya brother, Wanna come help me put mine together in a few months? I'm still waiting for the money tree so I can buy a JM 781 and 145 mag pump.

 

[Proformance1]

Nice looks good, cant wait to check out in Daytona

 

[motozachl]

Thanks dude. I am stoked to have it up and running perhaps tonight or tomorrow. I connected a few wires and it cranks and has spark so now I can button the ebox together and toss in some gas

 

[swannysxr]

Always good to see another Q8 build thread, I think I might go with the 550 tank also, How did you adhere the iinternal fill to the tank. Oh yea, I used to always give Bobby a hard time about the silicone.

 

[motozachl]

Finished the electrics up today and fired right up!!!!! Seems to be running perfectly in the garage. Wish that I could go out and water test it however it will be too cold up here and not enough time. Depending on the surf, I might try the lake down at Daytona first to get everything 100% tuned in.

Always good to see another Q8 build thread, I think I might go with the 550 tank also, How did you adhere the internal fill to the tank. Oh yea, I used to always give Bobby a hard time about the silicone.

I just cut a hole then put a stock yamaha filler neck & cap on it.

 

[Proformance1]

awesome you have it done run it on the hose at a minimum, ran mine like that last night as the trailer was leaving, lol

 

[pathasnoski]

First off I would like to thank all of those who contributed to my lost ski fund. LINK I appreciate all contributions that were made to help me put this machine together whether it be by donations or discounted parts; scrapping up the cash to support this hobby that I have an addition to has not been an easy task. For those who do not know, my jetski (an elusive modified highroller stunt hull) sank several months ago leaving me with nothing but desperation, depression. A huge two month struggle was put up trying to find my ski yet left empty handed. You can read the search here. Anyways the past is the past and things happen. I am just glad that I did not get injured and alive from those not-so-kind Erie waves.

Onto the NEW! I snatched up this hull (EME Q8 Stalker) a while back on some borrowed money and have been slowly been gathering parts to get this together. I have been able to ride a couple of these hulls, even Eric’s 1200, and the handling is fairly close to what my stunt was. What’s cool about these is that any engine and be thrown into these with the correct adapter plates. Because the funds were low I will just be going with a tried and true ported 701 thus relying on just my skills to do the rest.

The breakdown:
62t/61x ported 701cc
ADA girdled head
Lightened stock flywheel
ATP EPIC
stock 38’s
Coldfusion drive coupler
650sx drive shaft
650sx midshaft housing
skat 145mm setback mag pump
9/15 hooker
bpip mod chamber
ATP waterbox
waverunner 3 exhaust hose
550 fuel tank & westcoast pickups
X-metal scupper
X-Metal Adjustable Handpole
X-Metal Adjustable Steering System

View attachment 207111

Oh and yes I built this in my living room

Very impressed at your skills of jet ski making and fabricatiing skill at making ! I too love to build on many things to as make as you, but not so skilled as very impressive build to you do here. Perhaps you share cost of all parts with components to make for me in near future ??? I pay as money come out, but do not have too much money to put out at time to come by to see it too as you build for me ??? Thanks to you so much motozachl on great ski you build for me to have and hold as own so to in my country so enjoying many fun time on water and not get so cold with proper gear ... on new ski you make and share all time in great water me happy !!!