snow machine fanatics

[montananative]

well, ill see if any of ya can help me out here.

ive got a 95' artic cat powder special 580. i blew it up couple weeks back, not sure the exact cause, but the pistons werent gettin oil, so im guessin it was a failier in the oil pump. the engine seased up, but come free with little try once i turned on the clutch.

one of the piston rings melted and scored the cylinder wall, and it dont look like its gunna come out with a hone. my question is have any of you guys bored out a cylinder, and has it worked for you? i sure would'nt mind a couple extra cc's, but if im jsut pissin my money down the drain im not gunna mess with it. do you figure a bore job would be cheaper than buyin a whole new jug? cause once i bore it i will have to buy bigger pistons and all that bs.

its a real shame cause if that cylinder wall was ok, for a set of new pistons, rings, wrist pins, and gaskets it would only be like 140 bucks out of dennis kirk magazine. so im not sure what to do. any advice is appreciated. thanks

[r_cordell]

I wouldn't bother putting the extra money into it to bore it out on a sled thats 14 years old. I think you'd be better off checking around at sled shops and trying to find a used jug. You could probably pick one up for half the cost of a new one if you look around.

If you plan on using the sled for a few more years, go ahead and buy a new jug, but I don't think that I would bore it out, mainly because of reliability issues once you try to squeeze all the power that you can out of it. I'm not telling you what to do, but if it was me, I'd get it going for as cheep as possible and save my $$ for a new sled in a couple years. Just make sure you figure out what caused it to blow up in the first place before you do it again!

[montananative]

thats whta i was thinkin. im planning on buyin a new sled this fall...just wanted to have this one around for anyone who wanted to tag along either cat hunting or playin. it ran great...till it blew up

do u know of anyway you can test to see if the oild pump is workin??? cause i ripped the hoses off the jugs and no oil come out, i gave a cpl pulls on the pull rope and still nothin came out. its all ripped up now so nothin is really where it should be, and i dont really know what else to do to check it. im leanin toward the pump went out, but im not 100%. im a bit knew to workin on sleds, but i figured i coulnt mess it up to bad since its pretty much totaled already, and they arent that complex. i got the thing for 800 bucks, so im not in to deep yet. thanks for the help

[r_cordell]

sounds like it is your oil pump to me, you should be getting a little oil coming out when you pull it. Another possibility for you is since the 580 is a pretty common sled, is to buy one just like it for a few hundred bucks so you always have parts. And with those Arctic Kitties, it seems like you never have enough parts! just kiddin!

[montananative]

good ol shitty kitties haha. it jsut fine for a trail sled, i was jus pushin it to hard i spose. thanks for your help. prob wont bore out them jugs... seems i may just be pissin money away, like i said, im gettin a new one next fall, so im not really worried about it, prob just turn i into my project sled. thank agian

[hounder]

native,
I just had a jug bored for $45 i also know a couple of guys with alot of 580 stuff i can ask around if you need parts?????

[montananative]

shoot. if u can find a used jug that would be awesome. im not 100% sure if i would like to bore it out. can takin the jug down to the cast iron cause problems??? it moved just fine for what i was usin it for, and not sure if i want to spend the money for bigger pistons and all that stuff once i bore it out. im gunna start callin junk yards, but i hvae my doubt that i will find anything...but if ya find somethin. send me a pm. thanks a bunch for your help. really appreciate it

just out of curiosity, how many more cc's did a bore job give ya? thanks

[hounder]

native,
Heck i couldn't tell ya i just went ten thousandths over bore just enough to clean the walls up and ya i'll ask tommorrow at work to see about a used jug. You could also just get a new sleeve and have the old one pressed out and the new in. Instead of buying the whole jug.

[mojo]

You have a good sled look for a new jug and the parts keep it going. Mine is piped it has plenty o power,easy to fix. Looking into changing the clutch to a lower rpm engage. One thing check your cooliant offten, blew a head gasget this year 20 min. fix just keep the two o rings handy.

[montananative]

ya the sled was topped off w/ oil, gas, coolent, the works. blew up not four miles from the farm we were at i just had it pinned going accrossed a field and next thing i new she quite runnin...thats a sinkin feeling there. thats why im leanin toward the oil pump crapped out on me, cause the pistons were deff. starved for oil.

hounder- where did ya get your sleeve at? i spose i could ask the local dealer, but their price for new pistons and all that was twice as much as i could get them out of the dennis kirk catalouge...they could have been high performance pistons though. i just always fell like im getting ripped off going to the delaers. thanks everyone for all the help.

[hounder]

Native,
you prolly are getting ripped off going the dealer but you can get sleeves through LA sleve co. i think i still have their price sheet around somewhere i'll take a look

[Kevin D]

Here's what my concern would be: Say the piston meltdown was caused by the lack of oil as you suspect, what hidden damage did that do to your crank?? Pistons, jugs, and heads are relatively cheap. Replacing the crankshaft with associated bearings and seals, now your talking some serious cash. Last thing you want is to sink $500 into the top end of your engine only to lose the bottom end 100 miles later.

Unless you have some sentimental attachment to the snowmobile, I think you got some good advise from r_cordell........lick your wounds and dump that sled.

[FullCryHounds]

Probably not worth repairing but here's guy that may have a jug. Ray at Sprot Shack, 605 787-4813

[montananative]

Here's what my concern would be: Say the piston meltdown was caused by the lack of oil as you suspect, what hidden damage did that do to your crank?? Pistons, jugs, and heads are relatively cheap. Replacing the crankshaft with associated bearings and seals, now your talking some serious cash. Last thing you want is to sink $500 into the top end of your engine only to lose the bottom end 100 miles later.

Unless you have some sentimental attachment to the snowmobile, I think you got some good advise from r_cordell........lick your wounds and dump that sled.

im not real axperinced w/ workin on sleds so u may need to help me out on what the "crank" is. is that just the clutch shaft that turns the belt? if so, what can a person do to check if thats alright. if it is that clutch, the onyl thing that leads me to believe its ok is the engine did sease up, but it came free with zero effort one i turned on that clutch. thanks for ur help. i wont dump the sled, ill either fix it over a long period of time, or just use it for parts...but i has zero sentimental value, just a toy

[Kevin D]

Crank is short for crankshaft, and yes, it is what your clutch is mounted on.

As far as checking your crank for damage, a couple things you can try. Grap your clutch and try wiggling it up and down or side to side. Any movement, and it's toast. Also, grab on to your piston rod and check for slop or a gravelly feeling rotation. If the answer is yes on either of those, junk it. You can look for discoloration caused by heat on the main crank bearings, but there is no way of visually checking the needle bearings at the base of the piston rods.

All these tests will do is point out the obvious damage. It is the hidden damage too slight to see or feel that may come back to haunt you. What may seem smooth and normal pulling the engine over at hand speed, may become a major issue at 8-9000 rpms. As a general rule, anytime you rebuild only the top end of an engine that suffered from a major lubrication failure, you're taking a big chance.

I dunno, but you can probably get a couple hundred bucks out of your rolling chasis if it is in good shape. I'd take that money plus the money you'll save by not rebuilding that engine and get you another sled. You can probably pick up a good low mileage '98-'00 Polaris RMK 700 in the $1,800-$2,000 range. That's a helluva sled with a helluva engine. Anyway, that'd be my vote......