These past few months, we at The Watercraft Journal have been providing its readership exclusive access to the details and technologies developed for Belassi’s Marine Power Units (MPU). For the layman personal watercraft enthusiasts, this might not make a lot of sense considering that Belassi’s PWC units aren’t sold commercially within the United States (at least, not yet, anyways). So what’s the deal with these MPU’s, right?
Belassi’s Marine Power Unit program is aimed at custom boat and PWC builders looking at running a superior, high performance, high durability powertrain without having to purchase a brand new PWC and extract it’s driveline only to transplant it into another unit. (Consider all of the Kawasaki SX-R 160’s purchased solely for aftermarket stand-up builders like Kommander, Bullet and Fast Powersports.)
These “ready-to-run” drivelines from Belassi are scrupulously hand-built, dyno tested and durability checked prior to being boxed up and shipped out. In fact, Belassi is so confident in its process that it’s given us, The Watercraft Journal a bit of an inside-look at how they build and torture test these drivelines. Why? Because anything that cannot stand the rigors of day-to-day use should be sold to the public as such.
Here below some insights about Belassi’s Assembly Process for all MPU (Marine Power Units), whether sold to custom boat builders, diehard Open GP class PWC racers, or anyone in-between. It’s a bit of a “Cliff’s Notes” version of the process, but a great inside peek at how Belassi assembles, tests and delivers its “ready-to-run” Marine Power Units.
- Pre-quality check
Once all the parts are delivered, there is a quality check. For the pre-quality check there is a deep control about surface, tolerances and 3D scans of all the parts. Additionally, before to use these components, there are a storage quality check and surface inspection (cleanliness / surface damage) to make sure that all parts are stored in the correct way and are ready to use. - Picking all the parts
Manual collecting all the parts, for one engine there are 331 parts to be collected (830 single components). - Pre-assembly
Assembly parts as cylinder head (high complex part with tight tolerances that are assembled prior the full assembly and enables better quality tracking from the sub group. Also these parts are being pre-assembled: turbo system, stator assembly, crank shaft, pistons, intercooler, intake manifold and hose package. For each engine are available two different turbos that at the end will end up in three different engine configuration (260 / 330 / 400 hp).
- Assembly
All the pre-assembled parts goes together with the engine base parts to form the complete engine assembly. All hand build process. - End of Line
Each engine runs on break-in procedure to ensure proper sealing, engine bearings, piston rings and each metal part that moves to each other. On the Dyno, the engines run through a various load cycles, culminating in a full throttle verification run (400 hp at 8200 rpm). Each load has a 60 min. cycle duration and on the dyno each engines runs on its final configuration like display, brake/trim and so on… - Packaging
The process goes further with a visual quality inspection, change of the oil filter where the old one is stored for later inspection when required. All the relevant documentation (assembly, dyno docs, quality inspection) are send with the engine. Finally the engine hooks are installed for lifting and the engine is packed.
