Over the hood snow!!!

[94fordguy]

LOL, not quite the variety I am fond of....

Mark got the chance to pay me back for my tow truck duties last month....

So here's the situation. Pulled the top of the climbs and turned around to watch Mark follow me up a minute later. After he makes the climb, I turn around to follow back towards the open area to the west of the climb. As I turn, my ski hits a trench and I wind up getting stuck. A few minutes later I fire up the sled and let it warm up again (showed 110F at startup) After a minute he gives me a ski-pull and I am out and playing... 3 minutes later my sled starts missing (limp mode) I park and examine my gauges to see my temp light on and quickly flip to temp mode to see the display showing 234*F

After letting the sled cool for about 10-15 minutes and a few short idle periods to check the temp, I determined that although the coolant level is fine, it is NOT circulating AT ALL!!! I rode down the hillclimb and back to the trail (about 3/4 of a mile) in 2 sections with a 10 minute rest period in between to assure no further extreme heating and Mark then towed me back.

I am hoping it is just the thermostat, but am also curious if it could be the water pump?... I am trying to figure out why a thermostat would fail at the drop of a hat as this instance seems to suggest.... no prior problems with heating, this 'just happened'. Oil consumption was also normal for the amount if riding I got in to that point.

 

[Danbot]

Hows it going?


lol I had to. That sucks, hopefully there was no engine damage at those temps! wow

 

[Z-Man]

Your riding area looks amazing, but you look a little wet and cold...lol.

 

[94fordguy]

Hows it going?


lol I had to. That sucks, hopefully there was no engine damage at those temps! wow

LOL... that was the running joke yesterday after I got stuck... I'll try to get the helmet cam of the climb out and some of the tow-down uploaded later... I'm gonna yank the thermostat out and see if the coolant circulates to tell me if that was my problem... I am hoping so.

We along with another friend who knows a lot about motors seemed to think that even though she got cooking, since it was for such a short period are confident no damage was done... I will however be watching my coolant level closely to ensure I didn't melt any of my head o-rings during that short period.

I am glad to know that the sled performed properly and put itself into limp mode and turned the light on for me. I do usually watch temps very closely as I had been doing almost the whole day to that point, but man that came on quick! Especially considering how good the snow was...

 

[94fordguy]

Your riding area looks amazing, but you look a little wet and cold...lol.

haha, ya my gear was pretty soaked by the time we got back to the truck.... Luckily it is all down-hill from this location to get there!

This particular area offers Lots of riding through the trees with many hidden meadows and small ponds/shallow lakes to tear up. This is the only climb in the immediate area, but it's a challenge in deep or heavy snow, you have to pick the right line around the trees and get lots of speed when conditions require it. With the trees growing up quickly, the possible lines up and down the hill are getting smaller and smaller... the line we took yesterday hasn't been ride-able in 3 years due to insufficient snow. In the last 3 years we have had a maximum of 13 ft, 11 ft, and now 15 ft... finally just enough to cover the base trees.

 

[guidoxpress]

hows it going!! LMFAO!!!!

looks like your skid was stuck a few meters EH!! hahaha...man i miss revy, lol.

yeh man, hard to say what could have caused that, but i would switch the thermostat for sure...good measure is every 2 yrs slap a new on on there...

just like a car, they just go bad...i believe the oil pump shaft is the same as the water pump shaft, so hopefully its not that major...

however seeing that kind of temps, i wouldnt start it w/o replacing your o-rings in the head as well now...they most likely melted.

 

[94fordguy]

Well the good news is in, My thermostat was the culprit...

I don't think I am gonna pop the head off unless I start seeing a drop in coolant level... I know the thing got hot, but I shut it down pretty dang quick so I'm just gonna try my luck (been pretty good lately all in all, lol) with it... banking that it was too quick to hurt anything.

Ya, Revy was awesome!

 

[Danbot]

looks like your skid was stuck a few meters EH!! hahaha...man i miss revy, lol.

That's at least aboot 2 meters ehh!

 

[Z-Man]

Swap out the thermostat and start it up and check it. I think your head O-rings will be fine since you shut her down right away.

 

[94fordguy]

It turns out I got the incident on helmet cam including some good readable shots of the displayed temps. I'm uploading 3 videos including the climb up the hill and the entrance through the trees to the base of the climbs as well since I already posted pics of the ride.

 

[dmj1]

Well the good news is in, My thermostat was the culprit...

I don't think I am gonna pop the head off unless I start seeing a drop in coolant level... I know the thing got hot, but I shut it down pretty dang quick so I'm just gonna try my luck (been pretty good lately all in all, lol) with it... banking that it was too quick to hurt anything.

Ya, Revy was awesome!

I have had this happen twice out in the mountains. It is easy to fix in the bush . Park it up hill and let it cool down . Take the 2 10mm bolts out and remove the thermostat. Usa a leather man and tare the guts out in the thermostat and put back in. Takes about 1/2 hour to do but you can still keep ring for the rest of the day and not have to tow out. I found the thermostats only last about 2 years and when they go they stick shut. lol!

 

[05900]

Good you caught it in time and the cool down periods probably helped engine. Have you fired it up yet? Had one 06 go 250 and with a "snowshower" was fine once t-stat was replaced...Best of Luck!!!!!!!

 

[94fordguy]

I have had this happen twice out in the mountains. It is easy to fix in the bush . Park it up hill and let it cool down . Take the 2 10mm bolts out and remove the thermostat. Usa a leather man and tare the guts out in the thermostat and put back in. Takes about 1/2 hour to do but you can still keep ring for the rest of the day and not have to tow out. I found the thermostats only last about 2 years and when they go they stick shut. lol!

I considered trying to pull the thermostat right there, but after looking at the access to the lower housing bolt I didn't even bother... I didn't want to bugger up the bolts with a vise-grip or crescent wrench as they were the best available tools on the hill. The spot we were riding was a super-easy spot to tow from once I got back to the trail so it wasn't a huge issue except for losing out on a few more hours of riding.

I ordered a new t-stat this morning... should be here Thursday

 

[94fordguy]

Good you caught it in time and the cool down periods probably helped engine. Have you fired it up yet? Had one 06 go 250 and with a "snowshower" was fine once t-stat was replaced...Best of Luck!!!!!!!

Ya, I loaded and unloaded it X2 so I had to have it running then (sled deck) looking forward to riding again next weekend

 

[94fordguy]

Ok, I got 3 videos uploaded...

The first one shows the approach to the hillclimb boondocking through the trees

The Second shows 2 climbs on the hill... the top of the second climb is where I got stuck turning around after Mark made it up.

The third video shows my sled going into limp mode from the overheating... If you put it on full-screen on Youtube you should be able to read the display... otherwise you can just watch & listen.

Enjoy

 

[MacDawg productions]

Sounds about right. My failed on my last season. Ending my day on the end of a tow rope!! Should have just pulled the thermo, but we were close to the trucks.

 

[Z-Man]

Guess, I better ad changing thermostats to my list of things to do this summer.

Hey, do you still have the stock running boards on your sled?

 

[05900]

WRP board upgrade best thing ever and are they strong! No bending like the "other" ones!

 

[94fordguy]

Well we got in a great Spring ride this weekend, Clear, Sunny, and Warm, BEAUTIFUL day in the mountains... There was about 4" of relatively new snow
and we were trenching in 12-18 inches at the top of the climbs... It was so warm in the sun we had to seek shade for lunch, lol.

The sled ran great, this new thermostat is just a couple degrees colder than the old one, it was running 123* most of the day in good snow and no coolant drop detected... very happy she's running strong again

Zane, Yes, my boards are stock, with the heat they melt out adequately so that I always have decent enough traction and I ride too much into the spring that I often need to pack on snow... hard to do with a board insert. I honestly wish the Pro boards were like these... that's what I hate the most about the new Pros.

 

[guidoxpress]

glad to see all is well man...thats one of the best running STOCK 900s ive seen...

but here is what i think..

stop being a CHEAP A$$ and get some damn MODS INTO THAT THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!