01 xc 500 sp 2600 miles total. Just came back from dealer where they were suppose to do a preseaon run through. Service ticket did say they blead the coolant system as there was a lot of air in it. dealer turned fuel screw up from 1 trun to 1.5 turns to get sled to idle lower. carburation hasn't been clean seems to run a bit ratty but i figured it was the old gas. added about 5 gal new 91 oct and some dry gas to the 3 or so gals old stuff already in tank. i figure it just needs to be run a bit to clean itself out. dealer dropped the bowls.

I was playing around in a small 20 acre pasture. put 7 miles on sled when it over heated. Snow conditons were medium to light crust over about 6 to 8 inches of snow. Crust would not support human foot. Track left definite trail where it broke through. After running in a track i pretty much stayed on the broken up snow.

I got this sled last year w/2200 miles on it. never had any over heating problems and rode one day when the trails were pretty much solid frozen snice. (frozen snow that is as hard as ice) if there was ever a day when a sled would over heat that was it. sled never overheated.

Some questions

Does the 500 sp have a history of over heating problems??

I checked the coolant level and it appear to be down maybe a cup if that, but the level is suppose to be checked when cold. Maybe it will go up. But if it is low would being short 6 to 8 ounce cause over heating??

At first the over heating light would only come on when i pinned the throttle to do a "launch test" from 0 mph. lay off the throttle and do a rolling launch and it went fine. Also noticed the motor would cut out like it was hitting a rev limiter. Is it set up to do that so you don't screw up the motor??

The overheat light never came on full time it would only come on when the throttle was opened quickly. Lower rpms it would go off. When i went back to the barn I stopped to open door to ride in. when i got back on sled it would not rev high enough to engage clutch. Rev limiter thing going again. shut it off and pushed it (up hill) into barn and let it sit for 15 to 20 min. the it fire back up

Turning up the fuel screw wouldn't cause over heating would it. turning up the fuel screw would make things a little richer wouldn't it. sorry i come from the 4 stroke dirtbike world still not up to speed on these ring dings

anyone got any ideas?? I can't believe it was just the snow conditions especially after all the hard pack i ran last year?? air temp was around 32 +/- F

I would say you are air bound in the cooling system. If the dealer said you had alot of air in the system there is a reason for it. Does the coolant overflow when it gets hot? have the heads been off for any reason?

As far as i know the heads haven't been off. If coolant is over flowing would i smell it (like on my dirtbike) when riding. I looked in the tunnel w/flash light. and looked around the engine compartment and didn't see anything. I didn't see anyuthing in the snow where it sat fro 10 minutes, or on the garage floor.

I had the same problem a number of years ago. the first thing that I would do is to make sure the front of the sled is higher then the back and take the rad cap off and run it a fast idle and let the air rise to the top. I am sure that you will see air bubbles coming out. Keep adding a mixture of antifreeze and water as you need to to replace the air. Good luck

My buddy has the same year 500xcsp. I would say that they definatly run on the hot side. We added some water wetter and and lifted the front about 3ft off the ground (engine hoist) and let it run until the thermostate opened. that seemed to help. The rev limter that you talk about is actually a safety device so you won't blow the engine. It retards the timeing. The hotter it is the more it retards the timing. This will happen to the point were the sled will not rev enough to engae the clutch. Kinda like the retard button on the race sleds. The sled would overheat on ice trailes and when rideing threw deep powder. The reason it would over heat in deep powder is still kinda of a mystery. The only thing I can think of is that the sled is working real hard. Other then it running hot it has been agreat sled. It even started on the 2nd pull when the temps dropped to -30F and the sled was outside all night.

I think the3 water wetter is a good idea but more then likely you needed snow to go up into the tunnel on the cooler strips! I have a 01 xc-800 that I just changed the cooler strips to 2002's to add the extra cooler that polaris sell to cure there problem with M-10 sleds! well its not just M-10 stuff that runs hot its all Xc that are not tuned correctly and ridden in firm snow conditions. I put a temp gauge in last season I was very carefull in hard pack conditions when I saw how hot it was getting! Its not a big deal to change the coolers to 2002 spec, its easy to mod your 2001 to work with the aux cooler also! all you need to do is add the cross over to the top rather then the end! more then likely the holes are already in the tunnel if you take the seat off to look.

The funny thing was i rode some nasty hardpack last year for miles and never had it over heat. much worse than the crusty broken up stuff i was on, which was soft underneath. I'm going to bleed the system again and see if that helps.

bleed it again is my vote.

If it was chronic thing happening I would suggest:

longer snow flap,
or
aux cooler
or
small piece or aluminum in the front of the tunnel that will help trap snow/ice chunks and help cool it.
or
if it was a 02 change the bottle, some were defective.

Is your TPS set correctly, I think that will affect your heating, but not sure.

TC

Try some Redline water wetter, though it wil not cure the problem it will help save your engine from burn downs if you catch it in time!
1 Oz. (3 to 4 cap fulls) per qrt. of coolant.
Funny I never heard of all the over heating in Polaris's before and this year its a main stay on the forums.
The coolant system is worse than the Firecats - that s'pose to of had all these over heating problems last year.
Lift the front of the sled (put on a trailer bed, tilted) remove the coolant cap start the engine and when its warmed up a bit give it more gas (throttle) under engagement speeds (helps speed up the thermostat opening) it'll bounce around alot and it'll be hard to tell if air bubbles are coming out or fluid bouncing out.
Shut engine off, place back on the bottle, return the sled to level ground and let it cool before touching the cap again.
After it cool and I mean cooled off - lift the front higher than the back and tilt the sled on its side "running with cap on" go faster than normal idle speeds, shut off let cool and repeat the same on the other side - thats how I bled my RMK, so far so good.
Good luck.

Make sure that the coolant bottle on your sled is not messed up. On some of the 2001s, (including mine) the threaded top that the cap screws on to would get messed up. A tell tale sign of this is if the cap does not seem like it will stop, and keeps on turning as you tighten it. If it does this, you can lose the cooling system pressure. And if you lose pressure in a cooling system, you will overheat much easier. Polaris sells a replacement bottle for it. Just something you could check.

Bottle seems fine, but the coolant is a good 2 1/2 to 3" below the top fill fill line. I'll top it off and bleed it. Still according to the service records the dealer ( a good one) has already done that. Couldn't find a leak anywhere gotta wonder where the air is coming from???

I think part of the problem may have been rear flap. I added reverse and i think it got stuck under the tunnel when backing up. When i got off the sled after it overheated i noticed it was up under the tunnel. If you take off with it like that wouldn't it stay under there?? Wouldn't that prevent snow from getting on the coolers??