AmSnow.com is now SnoWest.com
We are equal opportunity dyno testers at AmSnow. We don’t simply test the top performance super-horsepower mega engines, but we also test the next generation of high-value, efficient, clean and modest output motors as well.
That’s why we were excited to get our hands on the latest results of an independent third party dyno test of the new 600cc ACE (Advance Combustion Efficiency) 4-stroke engine from Ski-Doo. This little parallel twin cylinder is fuel injected and pre-season Ski-Doo claimed it would get 29 mpg. That would make it the most fuel efficient sled on the market … by a long shot!
Numbers to trust
When someone has to tell you that they are telling the truth, or not giving you any “bull,” it makes you wonder. Are they unsure of themselves? We let the dyno stats do the talking for us.
We were originally quoted unofficially that this new “efficiency king” motor would pump out 65 horses. But when we got the final, official numbers in our updated press kit, the 600 ACE was listed at 60 hp.
We heard a few rumblings that people were disappointed with the power, but those few fail to realize that 60 hp is very similar, or in many cases even more, power than many of the sleds that we were riding just 10-15 years ago. Sleds like the Indy Sport, Puma, MXZ 440 fan, and many others had similar peak horsepower, but were less than half as efficient.
Digression aside, we had Jason Houle and the boys at Straightline Performance dyno a brand new 600 ACE right out of the box. Literally, this sled had 0.04 miles on it when it went on the dyno. Our third party testers saw 60.0 hp right on the button at 7,500 rpm. Looks like Ski-Doo’s engineers were spot-on!
Houle said it’s also important to remember that once the rings seal, and this motor is well broken in, that you will most likely see a slight increase in that power too. Conservative power increases could be anywhere from 2-3%, but possibly up to 5% more once this motor has a few miles on it.
As is typical of naturally aspirated 4-strokes this sled had a nice, flat, uniform power band. We did not have space to show the graph here, but you can see the top torque number was 42.7 lbs./ft. at 6,900 rpm.
Back to reality
We need more engines like this! Albeit, they also need to be less expensive, but even in our offices we’ve discussed many times that we need to start dialing back our own overly demanding expectations that every sled on the market should be 150+ horsepower, cost less than $10 grand and get 20+ mpg. So far, this seems to be a great little engine and in the MXZ TNT package comes in at less than $8,700.
Obviously if it cost less than $7,000 it would be even more attractive, but we need more solid value options to entice the active average snowmobiler to buy new again. We hope this engine is a sign of good things to come, at the entry to middle levels of the market!