2004 550 FAN MELTDOWN AGAIN

[ALPINE SPORTS]

REBUILT FROM CRANKUP SEALS, GASKETS, PISTONS.
RAN GREAT AROUND THE HOUSE AND ORCHARDS.
WENT UP STATE AND MELTED PTO PISTON. WIFE DRIVING THE INFAMOUS 25-35 MPH AND STEADY. I BELIEVE THERE IS A SERVICE BULLITEN ON THESE. ANYONE KNOW WHAT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED TO AVOID THIS AGAIN


THANKS

 

[rwillower]

the oil line bleeder kit ask ur local polaris dealer..trust me... they will know exactly what ur talking about... these sleds are notorious for this... i believe the cost around $45

 

[Mark's RMK]

550 Fan

MechEngr had a recent thread with some good info on it. In the last two weeks.

 

[Mech Engr]

melt down

I just got my wifes 2004 Trail RMK back together from the melt-down 2 weeks ago. We took it out this weekend and put 52 miles on it in varying terrain. Ran great and I looked at the pistons, plugs and cylinders yesterday and they still look new. Here is what I did:

1. Auto pump bleeder kit P/N 2203889 (like rwillower suggests), Very easy to install retail is about $42.

2. Increase piston to cylinder clearance to .0045" - .0053" per Polaris Team Tip S-04-09-02 (I set mine at the low end .0045"). If you want a copy of this team tip just PM me with your email and I'll send it.

3. I bought a Koso EGT gauge so I could monitor the temps. It has programmable max temps you can set so if reaches the set max on either cylinder the gauge backlight cahnges from blue to red and flashes. You may think the gauge is expensive but it will pay for itself in one outing if you shut the sled down and let it cool off saving the motor!

Hope this helps...

Big John

 

[ALPINE SPORTS]

THANKS, already have the bleeder coming.
Help with with the piston clearance. How is that measured??
Put piston in cylinder without rings and slide a feeler gauge between the piston and the cylinder wall?

I am also going up a few sizes on the mains and moving the e clip on the needle to #4( 4th from the top), what do ya think

My wife rides it, dont care if it goes over 60 or not
Thanks

 

[Mech Engr]

melted

Well believe it or not that feeler gauge trick is a long-time covited secret of guys in the industry. My father in law (doing it for over 40 years now) just used that trick on my wifes 550 fuji fan when honing the extra clearance. Personally, I just measure the piston (at 1/2" above skirt bottom perpendicular to the wrist pin) with a micrometer and the cylinder (with a telescoping gauge and micrometer) top, middle and bottom two measurements each 90 degrees from each other so you will end up with 6 measurements. Take the smallest cyl measurement and subtract the largest piston measurment from that to get the clearance. The feeler gauge trick can work if you know what you're doing but I wouldn't recommend it for someone who doesn't...best to stick with micrometer. Honestly though, it would only cost you maybe $30 to $40 to have a shop hone the excess material out to get the increased clearance. No need to bore it for this small amount. You will pay at least $25 for a crappy dingleball hone and the shop will probably use a Sunnen.

Hope this is helpful.

Big John

 

[Mark's RMK]

Cylinder Materail

Was the 2004 Nikacil? I'm pretty sure my 2002 550 SS is the normal non-nik type cylinders that a guy can hone themselves.

Would you send the Team Tip to mark.b.nelson@allina.com? How did you get that info? Dealer? Web site?

 

[Mech Engr]

melt down

I know for sure that my 2004 Trail RMK is NOT nikisil. You can always simply look at any one of the Polaris OEM parts sites (like Dirt Cheap Snow or Polaris Pit Stop) and tell if its a nikisil version by what is offered for pistons and rings. If they offer oversizes then it is definately not nikisil. By contrast, I look up pistons for my 2005 RMK 900 that I know are nikisil and only the standard piston and rings are available through Polaris.

Big John

 

[captnjac]

Similar Issues

i have an 05 trail touring that seized up on the trail. It stopped like i hit the kill switch. Anyway after it cooled down it pulled over. i checked the cylinder compression today after i got it home and one cylinder is at 130 the other at 110. It starts and runs, i am debating whether or not i should run it to see what happens with it. Or is the difference in the compression enough fo me to look into the fixes stated earlier in the trad?

 

[Mech Engr]

rmk

The general rule of thumb is no more than 15% variance between cyl's which would be 13 on your high cyl. Even if they were within spec I would still tear it down to the crankcase. You're only talking about $30 in gaskets and 1 hours worth of time. This way you can see what type of damage the siezure did. You don't have to pull the engine either and because it's air-cooled theres no coolant mess...just pop the head off then the cylinders. Depending on how bad the siezure was you may want to throw a new set of rings in that side and give it a quick hone. You can remove small amounts of piston (aluminum) from the cylider with muratic acid and a Q-tip...wash the cyl very well when done and use gloves!

 

[John Salisbury]

Hi Guys,

My wife's sled has the same problem with 650 miles on it and Polaris would not do anything for us. I have been reading all sorts of information regarding these 550 fans from 2004-2007. Spoke to several dealers, they even spoke to Polaris about this problem and Polaris won't do anything to resolve the issue. I installed the Nicasil kit ($1600) on my wife's sled but read about write ups on these that are not very good also. One dealer says that Polaris recommends we should install the self bleeder kit and to Change the needle to part#3131592 and needle jet part#3130947 Q-4(480), same #40 pilot jet and #280 main jet for the stock steel sleeve jugs. The needle is the same for the nik kit but the needle jet is part#3130964 Q-0(480), #35 pilot jet and #240 for the main jet for the Nicasil kit. I tried to call Polaris myself to see what they have to says to make sure this will solve the problem and the scum-bags wont help me. They say to call the dealer. I have the same 550 fan with 800 miles and do not want the same thing to happen. They should have sent out a service bulletin to all of the owners who have purchased these 550 fans since they knew about this problem. they could have possible saved a lot of people a ton of money. As far as I am concerned, Polaris sucks and I will never buy another one of their products if they wont back up their product and take care of the people who purchase products from them. It is obvious they do not care about the people who buy their products, if they did, they would have done something about this problem. They are screwing over all of us people. If I could get enough people together, I would like to talk to an attorney about filing a class action law suit against them. If you people are interested. Let me know. My email is j_salisbury@sbcglobal.net. Thanks!!

 

[Mech Engr]

550

John, I feel your pain. I am a Mechanical Engineer (turned Civil Engineer) and this type of customer neglect really pisses me off too. Polaris' problem is their lack of a good quality control system and/or implementation. I spent many a day in silicon valley dealing with quality issues like this and hence the change to Civil Engineering...much happier now! Anyway, I digress. The pump bleed kit is the next most imporatnt thing you can do after the piston to cylinder clearence to keep your 550 fan happy. Next is adding vents in the side panels and belly pan to keep it cool under the hood. I ended up with an extra pump bleed kit and I also have some of the side and belly pan vents with instructions. If you are interested PM me.

Big John

 

[xcr800sp]

550

John, I feel your pain. I am a Mechanical Engineer (turned Civil Engineer) and this type of customer neglect really pisses me off too. Polaris' problem is their lack of a good quality control system and/or implementation. I spent many a day in silicon valley dealing with quality issues like this and hence the change to Civil Engineering...much happier now! Anyway, I digress. The pump bleed kit is the next most imporatnt thing you can do after the piston to cylinder clearence to keep your 550 fan happy. Next is adding vents in the side panels and belly pan to keep it cool under the hood. I ended up with an extra pump bleed kit and I also have some of the side and belly pan vents with instructions. If you are interested PM me.

Big John

Hey

 

[xcr800sp]

Hey Big John I would be interested in the information that you spoke about in this post. Thanks

 

[volcano buster]

He hasn't been on since 2015.