2004 skidoo mx z 550 fan

The writing is on the walls for the Zx chassis fans. Buy a fan-cooled anything or a Legend liquid-cooled model. Those are your choices if the Zx is what you really want. In all honesty, the MX Z 550 Fan is a fun little sled in its own right.

Ski-Doo and Rotax upped the performance level in the fan-cooled segment last year by adding 10 percent more displacement to the engine. The 550cc twin completely changed the character of the model by giving it more zip for the dollar.

The 550 Fan is fed via a pair of 34mm round slide Mikuni carbs. They do an admirable job of walking the fine line between performance and fuel economy. While the MX Z 550 Fan is no powerhouse, it is fairly miserly in its fuel consumption. The round slides also are noticeably heavier than their flat slide counterparts.
Ski-Doo harnesses the power from the mill via the lite primary clutch and the Formula RER secondary clutch. Accordingly, the MX Z 550 Fan sports the push button reverse system.

Stopping duties are performed by a standard hydraulic disc brake.
Under the sled's nose, the ADSA trailing arm suspension system uses Motion Control shocks to smooth out the 10 inches of travel.

The SC-10 III rear suspension uses the same Motion Control units. Like the higher performance sleds in the REV chassis, the fanner's skid has full coupling capabilities and is tunable by rotating a cam block at the back of the rail.

The 15x121x.88-inch track offers good traction for acceleration and stopping. The fan-cooled engine doesn't require a deeper lug track to put its power to the ground. The result is the benefit of a slightly lighter track.

To cut some of the price off of this economy performance sled, Ski-Doo opted to utilize the blow molded plastic skis from Camoplast, instead of its dual runner Precision ski. They do much better in the corners than the steel skis found on some competitors, but are surely not as positive as the dual runners found on the REVs.

Ski-Doo also dropped the tachometer from the 550 Fan model to cut cost. The thinking is that those who are buying on price point, as most fan-cooled sled buyers seem to be, aren't into performance enough to pay much attention to the engine's operating speed. In return, the speedometer is the nicer electronic unit on this sled.

This story ran in the January 2004 issue of American Snowmobiler magazine