So I've resigned myself to making my tiny dinghy into a jet boat by grafting in a jet ski drive. Toyman will be proud. After some exhaustive searches for jet pump housings that might be suitable for X hp, then finding lightweight power in that same X hp range, I decided I'll take the weight penalty and just cut and paste.
I know nothing about them other than PWCs are fun. Name of the game here is hp/weight. I don't need excessive hp, but this is GRM and we do stupid E36 M3 all the time, so why not go really fast before I die?
What I'm looking for is a good pick of PWC to hack for the drive. Obviously, since it's an 8' x 4' boat with about 14" of freeboard, weight is an issue. Having said that, I'm likely looking at the smaller end of the displacement spectrum. Where I lack knowledge is in what some of them weigh. For instance, a Rotax in the 650cc range might be lighter than a Yamaha in the 500cc range, or maybe there is a 750cc that makes 20 more hp for only 6 more lbs. Or maybe there is a 400cc that makes 15 fewer hp, but weighs next to nothing.
And all of the above might be reliability wins or nightmares.
I've asked this on a PWC forum and the signal to noise ratio is such that I haven't had a single reply in a week. Hoping maybe one of you folks has experience in the PWC world.
