Mabey do some research before you go out buying sleds. your right that 550 fans are junk. But besides the 550's Polaris is way better than skidoo!

 

agree the 550 is not a good motor but you bought the 550 because of the cost, you get what you pay for,dont know why anyone would buy a fan cooled sled . good luck with the ski- donts, hope you have better luck then a couple buddys had with there 600 dos. poo wont fix your 6 year old sled, think do will fix your new one in 2017, if it lasts that long .

 

"you get what you pay for"? I would say that after spending $6000+ on the 550 trail touring I would get more than 3000 miles. And remember, I bought 2 machines! Not all of us are able to spend $10,000+ on a machine that can only be used for approx. 12 weeks. Just looking for affordable, winter FAMILY recreation. Glad I didn't have the kids along when they blew up. And just to let you know...I spoke to the dealer again (this time the owner) and he told me he had 5 dead machines waiting for him this morning, weekend kill! Guess I'm not the only one!

 

I copied this from a friends fb page both 550 fans
one burned down a mag side piston, and the other ate a piston skirt on the PTO side.
‎2 sleds made in the same factory, on the same day, 6 years ago, with the same miles on them, with the last digits on the serial number only 9 digits apart .both find their way into my garage within the same day, at the same time, to have their engines rebuilt. isn't it ironic. ( last 3 digits 762, and 753) both built on 7-9-04 which was a fri. someone must have been day dreaming on the assembly line. alot of poo dealers were covering this as a "good will" warranty. I make the owners responible for parts. one ordered from Tom's, the other from Zahms. As far as i know.... no dealer support. I'll call Tom tomorrow ,... as I have some parts i need to pick up myself.

 

Hoping those problems started after 2003..............

Sorry to hear about your problems with your 550's but I have two,a 2002 and a 2003, they have 4 and 5 thousand miles on them. Not one problem so far! Sleds run great in the very cold and when the temps get above freezing too. Have even rode when temps where in the 50'sF in the spring. Not one plug fouled in the last 5 years that I have owned them.....

 

there was a long thread on here a couple years ago with among others, a ski resort owner having a real horror story with his 550 fleet. If I remember correctly, one of the problems being poor heat management on the 550 in the edge body, cooling fan sucking hot air from the exhaust pipe area.
And there apparently was a "rental fleet kit" available, consisting of air ducts to provide cold outside air for the cooling fan

Then, one of the rental fleet operators in town got 550's with more than 20k on the clocks. Why some has good luck with these while others have the opposite, I've no idea.

Myself, I'm leery of these, and don't feel comfortable recommending them to new sledders asking me for advice for an affordable sled

 

you can't blame polaris for those, any fan cooled sled with that many cc's could easily overheat and blow up if your throttling them too hard

 

Polaris Released a Nicasil update kit for engine that burned down and yes did provide "goodwill" warranty for those unit a few years after. Polaris cant keep paying goodwill warranty forever.... There hasnt been many problems with the Nicasil Cylinders. The biggest problem with these fan sleds is Jetting and the lack of checking the jets at the begining of the season or changing in colder conditions. There have been many Team Tips (ask your dealer) reguarding jetting to these sleds.

 

I had a 2003 550 bought new and rode 3000 miles without issue. New owner daughter rides it now & has put another 2k. Its still going strong.
But...my riding buddy had a 2004 classic 550 for his daughter that suffered a meltdown. It got fixed with the kit. He has since sold it.
yes read on the boards about the problems others had. Do not know what the difference in mine vs. the 04-05s. We rode it like we stole it and had a lot of fun on our 2003. Honestly I wish I never sold it (its the black/yellow in the avatar) It was a very dependable sled used in all conditions.
Good luck with your new sled.

 

An important thing to note: Most sleds older than a year or two were jetted for non ethenol fuel. Now almost all fuel contains 10%. Ethenol makes your engine run leanner. It would be a good idea to richen the needle and mains on all sleds and a fan cooled engine will burn down easier when being a little lean than a liquid cooled one. Next year may have up to 20% ethenol and if people don't jet up there will be massive number of meltdowns. Check your gas pumps to see how much ethenol content.

 

See link below to thread from last year...p
http://www.hardcoresledder.com/foru...m/forums/252-polaris-general-discussion/474968-550-oil-pump-update-problem.html

 

I have a 2004 Polaris 550F touring. It is the Edge Chassis.

It's got around 2900 miles on it now. No engine problems. These threads have me worried. Too bad they don't have good data on the actual percentage of failures in these engines.

I started running 100:1 premix in my gas (in addition to the oil pump) this season (200 miles ago).

I may move the needle jet up 1 clip when I get a chance to fatten up the mid range. I am fairly handy, but haven't worked on a sled carb before.

Right now I feather the throttle if cruising in the 30-40mph range, hoping to get more gas sucked into the engine to prevent any lean problems.

I use very little oil on this machine. I can't find what the average oil consumption is.

P

 

if you top up both the gas and oil tanks, the sled should use about 1qt for a tank of gas.

instead of raising the needle 1 full clip pos, you may put in a needle shim that raises it 1/2 clip.
As for the percentage of failures, I'm sure Polaris got data for warranty claims etc, but good luck getting anything fromn them...

 

Thanks for the advice Ivar.

According to the specs I have, the machine holds 12.25 US gallons (46L). 1 qt is .95L. so about 50:1?

I could be wrong, but I don't think my machine uses that much....

P

 

not 100% sure but I thought the edge tanks were 11.8 USG / 43 liter?

 

Feb '09 my buddy bought 2nd hand '03 Trail/Tour w/300 miles...burned down 50 miles later...
Was repaired, went 1300 miles, just burned down again...of course, dealer is no help.

He took it to a private shop; they would not rebuild those model 550F...

pretty effed up how a trail model burns down mid-range, 25-40mph

 

pretty effed up how a trail model burns down mid-range, 25-40mph

from what I read/hear, midrange / low speed burndowns are pretty common on these, -> to me it sounds like underhood heat, leading to poor cooling is a big part of the problem

 

the polaris 550 fans have been falling apart this year. i have heard of 4 blowing up around here. most the mechanics say that the ethanol is killing the motors quickly.

 

Anyone try making something to keep the hot air off the motor and keep cold air going into the motor? I wouldn't think it would be too hard to try.

 

Well , i work for a ski area, weve had 7 skidoos in a month loose pto cylinder and a couple have stuck a ring in both sides. still digging in to them to find out the cause. they are not stored inside so we thought that was the cause of the first few. one i took apart today was a 09 with 5000 miles on it, both cylinders were really dry. pto toast mag side bottom ring stuck in one spot.

 

From what I know about those 550 fans they have been burning down since 2000 when they were first introduced as the replacement for the 488 fans, it was one of those POS motors that ruined a UP 1 day ride for me, 3 of us drove up to Trout Lake from Gaylord early on a Saturday morning, the 3rd wheel that was with us had the turd 550, 5 miles out it wend kaplooey, I ended up towing it back with my XC 700, hit the bar in Trout lake for a couple of beers and by noon was headed back to Gaylord, polaris fixed it and then again not long after it took a crap again on him, I was convinced from then on that the 550 fans were junk and made sure to steer clear of them no matter how good of a deal was presented.

 

My mom has an 2005 550 fan and she loves it. It has over 3000 miles on it and have never had a problem with it

 

I have a 09 550 shift with over 4000 miles and zero problems,just did 500 miles this past weekend in 2 1/2 days,i run a 20 thous shim under the stock e-clip position 12-15 mpg average i can easily go 120 miles before looking for gas,the newer 09 and up 550,s will kill the older 550,s in perf and reliability.HEMI

 

We have a 2005 with the needles shimmed and it goes good. Still gets 15 mpg or so no problem. Have been really careful about always putting super unleaded in it and not driving it in the 40-45 range steady for long periods of time. It does not seem to have any detonation problems. Hoping it lasts as my wife really likes it.

 

I posted an article a while back about the needles, nozzles, oil pump update and how I keep my daughters Super Sport running cooler by adding a heat shield between the pipe and engine. Aluminum shield with reflective heat tape facing the muffler. The top is bent towards the opening in the hood. The vent was notched on the side and heated and bent towards the shield to direct incoming air towards the engine. Works like a charm. The sled starts on the first pull every time....unreal....only Polaris sled that I own that will do this....hot or Cold !! One pull. It got 15 mpg before I changed the needles and nozzles and about 11-12 mpg after I put them in.

 

My dad had an 01 sport touring 550 we bought it with 100 miles. It blew up at 110 miles. Got it rebuilt, made it to 4000 miles and it blew up again. Bye-Bye stupid fan cooled pos...

 

There has been 2 substitution cylinders for the troublesome 550 engine, for a total of 3 different cylinder part numbers all together..
3089525, (newest)
3089226
3089232