Snowmobile engine rebuild, advice??

[SeanWilson]

hey guys, about got my ranger done (good enough to last threw winter) and now its time to get my shit together. I used to have a 98 Polaris 700 indy xc, witha 144, after market reeds, boost tube, comp pistons and some more goodies i got and put in with a mechanic friend on the west coast.

BUT, now i live in SouthEastern Iowa... and this time its a new sled... (dont ask) but im working with an 2001-02 Arctic Cat 600 powder special. it is a 144 2up, my little sister doesn’t ride so im taking it. Clutch blew shooting down through the belly pan and then the off balance crank shaft ended up doing catastrophic ring, piston and cylinder wall damage. she had no idea and drove it for 20+ miles thinking “well this feels weird, OH WELL”.

My plan is to either rebuild the engine or find a new on to drop in.
Either way its gunna be built with a little more balls then before, so i guess im asking if anyone in my neck of the woods knows of local shops OR can point me to a website or a company that has a good reputation, service and of corse a good price.

the plan is fresh engine, tear off that old 80lb 2 person seat, slap in a boss or custom light weight seat, cut the rails off and rivet in new aluminum deep power-clear out’s and put on my (off the gone polaris) simmons flex ski’s

 

[nitrofan1]

Now this is an off topic thread if I ever saw one even for a general forum. LOL

Naw seriously, are you a member of any snowmobile forums? There is a major lack of need in my neck of the woods obviously but a little search yielded this forum which looks pretty good.

Join up if you are interested and ask away!

http://www.snowmobileworld.com/forums/index.php

 

[SeanWilson]

haha yeah i had not looked yet! lol i was reading up and a engine rebuild a guy did on his 4.0L and was like
and that spewed out lol

i just know there are some members from canada and crazy guys from the rockies (area i used to go to ride) so insight might be had lol

nitofan i will check this site out

 

[88B2EB]

Sean, yeah a bit off topic for sure but you posted in the general section so I say keep it goin! It's nice to see something fresh and off topic once in a while.

Anyway, you might want to look into finding a used engine for it. I've got a 98 ZRT 600 which I think has just about the same engine and they pop up on craigslist quite a bit for around $600. Maybe that sounds like a lot but when you consider piston/ring kits are around $150 a cylinder x3, gaskets are $100 or so, new clutch is $300, crank rebuild is $300, you're over that 600 mark pretty fast and haven't even done any of your mods yet. With the warm winters we've been having around here older snowmobiles don't get much use and just seem to last forever, especially those Suzuki engines we have. The other thing is 2-stroke engines are extremely simple to work on so if you're considering doing some performance mods you might think about doing the assembly/disassembly part yourself, then have the heads milled and jugs ported professionally. I'm a 2-stroke fanatic even more so than a Ranger enthusiast and am on a site called Suzuki2Strokes.com quite a bit as 'Madbuffalo' and while we cater more to Suzuki road bikes of the 60's & 70's there's loads of useful information about 2-stroke mods and a very knowledgable group of guys. So that's my recommendation. Find a good used engine where the crank and clutch are already working and then mod from there. Common mods are ported jugs, milled heads, chambers, reeds. Think about exactly what you want out of it too. Mods almost always have a consequence. Chambers give you more horsepower at one RPM but take it from another. Milled heads add compression but reduce engine life. On and on. Hope that helps. Good luck with the new sled and whatever you do with it, have fun!

Josh

 

[SeanWilson]

Thanks 88!

yeah general means general, i like to surprise haha

i will deff check them out! this sled will be basically ridden for about a 1-2 weeks straight a winter then summerized and left in the trailer. so “life” im not too worried about, im a boondocking hill climber, ill be spending days at a time out in the rockies bouncing around the mountain tops. my last sled was 10 years old and barely 3000 miles, all mountain no trails ever.

i didnt know those engines were so close, i guess id forgotten that suki and cat are basically one in the same. Yeah i started looking around pricing different kits, it sure add’s up quick!