It's a given that if you're a serious mountain rider, you're going to take a look at most any product that drops weight off of your sled. But how often do you find a product that cuts serious weight while also improving engine performance?
Black Diamond Xtreme's BDX Black Boxx cuts eight pounds off of an Arctic Cat M-series sled. Eight pounds on an already-light mountain sled is a huge amount of weight. How does an intake system cut that much weight? Arctic Cat's M-series sleds draw air from the top of the hood, through screens that are located just behind each headlight. The air intake on these sleds is in the nose of the sled, so the air has to be plumbed from the hood headlight area down to the nose of the sled. Cat uses plastic plenums to channel the air down to a plastic airbox. The BDX Black Boxx changes the air intake from the upper reaches of the hood to the nose cone itself, eliminating all of the plastic duct work and airbox from the sled.
Here's the quick version of how the BDX Black Boxx goes into a 2009 M8 Sno Pro.
Contact Black Diamond Xtreme (507) 824.9966 or www.bd-xtreme.com.
This is the nose of the sled in stock form. There are vents in the hood for air flow, but they're just for underhood ambient air.
Once the hood has been removed from the sled, begin removing the intake plenum by taking off the two O-rings that hold the corners of the plenum and the windshield tabs in place.
There are two nuts holding the plenum in place. One is on this metal plate and the other is inside the plenum, covered by a rubber plug.
Use a torx driver to hold the head of the bolt (located under the headlights) while you remove the nut.
This pin holds the nose of the intake plenum in place.
Now remove the nose piece of the sled, held in place by four bolts on the top side.
.And several torx-head screws on the underside.
Cut out the nose piece hole templates that are provided in the kit and tape them in place. This will show you where to drill holes in the nose piece for the new intake's air source.
We used a hot nail to put pilot holes through the template holes and into the nose piece. We couldn't find any scented candles, so we resorted to an actual torch.
Next, drill out the pilot holes with a drill bit. You can use any size from 3/8- to 1/2-inch for the holes.
We used a deburring tool to clean up the holes.
Next, apply the adhesive-backed filter screens to the nose piece over the holes. It's very important that this step be done inside when the nose piece is room-temperature. Also, make sure that the plastic nose piece has been washed and rubbed down with alcohol to get rid of the greasy residue so the adhesive will bond properly.
Remove the ECM from the stock airbox, pull the airbox out of the nose of the sled, carefully removing the blue sensor from it.
If we could leave it like this, we'd save about 20 pounds, but some of that stuff just has to go back on.
Use a rotary tool to cut grooves in the belly pan for the Black Boxx intake cover's tabs to slide into. the nose of the sled, carefully removing the blue sensor from it.
Black Diamond includes four bulls eye intake plugs that mount in the body plastic in front of the upper A-arm, just below the groves that were cut for the intake cover.
Insert the air sensor into the Black Boxx intake.
Re-install the nose piece and bolt it back into place.
To install the Black Boxx intake cover, slide the tabs into the grooves that were cut in the belly pan.
The nose of the intake cover is held in place by the aluminum tab, while the ECM box, which screws back into the Black Boxx, holds the top of the intake cover.
Re-install the hood and mount the hood screens on the four vents on the nose of the sled and you are ready for the powder.
The leftover parts add up to about eight pounds of shop ornaments.