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Snowmobile Oil and Maintenance

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yooperpete
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 1413 Northern Michigan
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2010-12-06          175557

Any of you guys own snowmobiles? I've never owned nor driven one. Just purchased two used units and am wondering what type of oil to put in them. Both are 2 up touring models and carbureted.

First unit is a 2002 Ski-doo 600 liquid cooled, with 780 miles, air suspension, studs and heated hand grips. It was using Ski-doo's standard mineral oil.

Second unit is a 2003 Polaris 550 fan cooled, with 1600 miles and heated hand grips. No studs. It was using Polaris's standard mineral oil.

1.Would you keep using the same oil and buy both types?
2.Would you switch both over to using the same oil? If so, which one?
3.Would you go to a synthetic blend?

Ski-doo has a synethic blend called XPS. On the carton it states for E-TEC, SDI, Power-TEK and all liquid cooled Carbureted engines. Since the Polaris is fan cooled, it would not seem appropriate to use it. What about the AMSOIL brand?


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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3583 iowa
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2010-12-06          175561

Yoper:
I've never owned a snowmobie so I'm not offering any advice. I'm just curious too. Are snowmobile engines all two cycle using a gas/oil mix or are they four cycle?
A local club uses a trail across our farm and it is interesting how fast they can go.
Whenever snowsmobiles first became a fad it must have been in the 70's sometime, some friends bought a his and hers. They abandon them after a couple seasons, his comment was that he spent more time fixing than riding. They've likely been improved since then.
Frank. ....

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yooperpete
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 1413 Northern Michigan
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2010-12-06          175567

Hardwood:

All of them used to be 2 strokes but they now offer 4 strokes. However, they are really expensive. Ski-doo has a new 2 stroke out there that is really clean burning and that is also expensive.

Snowmobiles have gone a long way since the '70s (I hope) cuz I'm not planning for break downs and only hoping for fun. The gear has improved lots as well. Am looking at spending about $500.00 per person for gear.

Got about $8,500.00 invested in snowmobiles and a trailer. Hope we enjoy this winter sport. Could have saved this for retirement but gotta have some fun first! ....

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treeman
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 251 Wisconsin
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2010-12-06          175577

Just get a quality 2-stroke oil that is recomended for air cooled snowmobiles. I would stick with a petrolium product on those sleds. Synthetic oil is great for sleds running extreem conditions like racing or high altitude because of extra heat created. Petrolium will fight against rust inside your engine while it sits over summer better. ....

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Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
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2010-12-16          175791


Played with two strokes a bit, lost a few, rebuilt a few. One thing that I found out is that air cooled run warmer by about 400 degree's at the head vs an water cooled engine.. That is going to make it hard to say which oil would be best for you. ....

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treeman
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 251 Wisconsin
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2010-12-16          175792

There was a time when snowmobiles had "free air" engines. The engines were cooled from air blowing over the fins only when the sleds were moving. Those could run hot depending on wind direction and ambiant tempature. When they started putting fans on the engines, many of the problems went away just as long as you adjusted the fan belt once in a while. In fact, there are times that the fan cooled engines will run cold if your not running them hard enough. Then came the liquid cooled with radiators. Then the LC with heat exchangers. The nice thing about the LC ones are they have a thermostat which keeps them at one temp most of the time. That helped the problem of cold fouling the spark plugs. The problem with the LC's is what's called "cold seizures". It happens when you hop on a cold LC sled and don't warm it up first, then go as fast as you can. The piston will expand way faster than the cylinder and will seize. The tell tale sign is six vertical seizure marks on the piston and cylinder. Each mark will be right where the cylinder stud is. I doubt a beginner on a 2-up sled is going to need special oil, just don't buy CHEAP oil. The oil for air cooled engines will be better for a wider range of operating temps. It's easy cooling a engine in the winter. I used to fly ultralights in 90+ deg weather with a fan cooled snowmobile engine. ....

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Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
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2010-12-17          175819


At the time I was curious about using chain saw oil in my boat engine. About that time I had just about run out of the original oil that the past owner was using which was a generic two stroke oil.
It had just about everything covered on it's label, chain saws, out boards , snowmobiles, trimmers and all.

I found out about the heat difference in the head from an oil engineer at one of the meetings I was attending. It was about two weeks later I lost my boat engine, water in the fuel had gone through the carb and with it being hot it let the carbon go from the pistons and ruined two cylinders. The carbon was left over from not running hot enough as compared to an air cooled! Shortly after that the TC oils for out boards started showing up which was to keep taht from happening. ....

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600rider
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 5 union city pa
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2010-12-23          175921

I own a 2007 Skidoo GSX 600 HO SDI and have only run the Skidoo synthetic blend in it. It is oil injected fuel injected and it has just over 4000 miles on it. I was at the dealer the other dayand overheard him talking to another customer about oil. The customer was looking for the cheapest oil to put in his sled and the dealer told him that the skidoo blend wasnt the cheapest but in his opinuion was best. when a sled comes in and needs torn down the inside of the engine was cleanest when using skidoo blend. That being said I would run the skidoo blend.
Oh yeah, yes sleds have come along way since the 70's or 80's for that matter. I put 2100 trouble free miles on my sled last year and only had to change the wear bars on the skis and got about 18 to 20 mpg doing it!! :) ....

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