Building the Ultimate IQ
Mountain Mod Mania's Project Polaris
Sledheads
With the advent of turbocharged two-strokes coming on the market, now was the time to try one out for one of our project sleds to be featured in Mountain Mod Mania 6.
We had great luck turbocharging the Yamaha Apex and Nytro the last couple of years, and now with fuel injection taking care of the fuel demands, the two-stoke turbo is a reality instead of a disaster when we were trying to tune with carburetors.
Jack Struthers, owner of Carl's Cycle in Boise, ID, has always been one of my heroes in the snowmobile world, having won tons of snocross and I-500 races.
I grew up riding Polaris snowmobiles, with my first a 1979 Indy 340 and moving up the years to the 500 Centurion, 600 Indys and then the almighty 650 Indy with that long 133-inch track.
I was eager to try out the new Polaris IQ chassis. It fit well, has great ergonomics, looks awesome and I knew Q-Dog (my 14-year-old son) would rock on this platform. Carl's Cycle builds some fast Polaris sleds in its state-of-the-art facility and I knew they would be up to the task of building this little hotrod.
I wanted to have a really light sled with more usable power that was really fun, nimble and would hold its own.
For power we teamed up with SPS Turbos out of Utah. SPS is owned by Brook Beckstrom, who is well known for being a world class hillclimber and diehard Polaris guru.
The SPS Turbo kit uses the AeroCharger series 53 turbo that features a built-in oiling system to make installation a snap. We are running around 12 lbs. of boost, which nets us about 220 hp fueled by Sunoco 110 octane race fuel.
Brad Wursten, owner of Power Addiction, provided a low compression head to help control detonation.
Fuel delivery and professional tuning was handled by Derek Fischer, owner of Attitude Industries, with his slick fuel control box. This box tells the injectors when to add extra fuel as more boost is forced into the engine.
For the suspension we installed the latest Fox EVOL float shocks on the front and Fox Float shocks on the rear. The new Fox EVOL shocks are way more tunable with the extra air chambers and adjustable compression and rebound dampening. The extra chambers allow for a more adjustable ride. You can set the main chamber up to, say, 75 lbs. and the EVOL chamber to 150 lbs., so you can have a great ride with the lower pressure in the main chamber and when you start maxing out the shock and pressure goes over 150 psi, the EVOL chamber comes into play to give you awesome control and handling. Struthers was the originator of putting Fox Shocks on sleds years ago and now Struthers and Fox work hand-in-hand, developing and tuning shocks for maximum performance.
Holz Racing Products provided the suspension with lightweight A-arms and spindles on the front along with lightweight rear skid components that give a better ride as well as save lots of weight in the rear. Struthers also installed the Fox EVOL shocks on the skid as well. Also installed was a cool rear rack and ice scratchers that allow us to remove some bogey wheels and more weight.
I like the idea of saving weight and getting a better ride.
We also installed 2 Cool Air Vents to help keep this added horsepower and clutches cool along with additional vents by Carl's Cycle.
This little hot rod wouldn't be complete until we installed USI X2 adjustable skis. These new skis are adjustable by adding different plastic rudders to the front and rear of the ski, allowing you to tune how aggressive you want them for different snow conditions. So far I am very impressed with this new ski design.
We are monitoring our engine's EGT and water temp with a Digatron gauge.
After two days in the shop it was time to try out the Ultimate IQ. We headed up to McCall, ID, with Struthers and with a little tuning on the Attitude box by Derek, the sled was rocking.
Right out of the gate it was the fastest of all the sleds that were there. The power was great, the throttle response was quick and the sled felt really light and handled great with the Holz suspension and Fox shocks.
Q-Dog immediately fell in love with this sled as it is so easy to ride and has great power.
He really liked the way we could dial in the new Fox Float EVOL shocks for an awesome ride and handling.
The Polaris IQ handles great and makes lots of power. Carl's Cycle did a fantastic job on it; these guys are first class.
The entire sled build is featured in Mountain Mod Mania 6.