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Vertically Challenging
Q:I have a 2004 Vertical Escape 800. When I bought it, and all the way up to “fixing” it, the sled ran awesome. Problems started when I fattened the jets. Now the detonation code comes up (double flash on the temperature light) when I drop the hammer - then it overheats. I had one of the guillotine’s break on me, and although it doesn’t sound good, I actually had some good luck because I thought it sounded funny so my buddy and I were diagnosing the problem when it broke. I didn’t hurt the jug or anything. We replaced it along with the piston and ring, just to be safe. Anyways, we didn’t get a good fit with the rubber O-ring and had overheating issues. We then replaced all of them again, with a much better fit than the other ones. We’ve checked the thermostat, and it opens all the way at the right temp. We’ve tried running it without the thermostat in the garage and we think it’s not getting circulation. I thought all the issues were over, only to have the same old problems still happening. PLEASE HELP! I’ve had a lot of shops tell me a lot of things that don’t make sense to me, like “you need octane boost.” My question is why wasn’t that an issue before? Others have told me “you have a bad temperature sensor.” Thanks for any help. –
sled2death
A: This could be a number of issues, but if the sled is overly rich it could cause the detonation sensor to go off prematurely. The sensor is just a vibration or noise sensor. We have found that the sensors on those particular sleds went off way to early anyway, so we just remapped the boxes and removed the detonation feature. As for the overheating issue, I would confirm that the coolant is circulating first. Maybe start with the pump? –
Jeremy Houle, Speedwerx