Thanks for the info. Where can I get information/tutorial on the fan duct kit modification? I want to do this right away.

I do think they did something to help it run cooler. po1ar1s told me "I talked to a guy in NH that had 10 new 550's for rentals last year and he had zero engine failures. His experience was much better than what he had to deal with on the previous 550s." That speaks something, considering the consistent horror stories of older 550 rental fleets.

 

The fan duct kit was for the edge chassis. Your sled already has one. You should be good to go. I still believe that the 550 is a good motor.

 

2007 Trail Touring Deluxe

I currently have a 2007 Trail Touring Deluxe in my garage. Last week I ordered the Polaris Kit-Edge Hood Fan Duct, Part #2203829, I started out yesterday morning by laying all the pieces out, getting the copies of the Template made in case I made a mistake, this on the 1st portion of the instructions. Reinforced them with poster board as per the instructions, and after a meticulous afternoon mounted and cut out the holes in my belly pan. All Louvers in the kit are the same, and they do not match the Template. So now I am sitting here waiting for Tuesday and another round of speaking with Dealer, getting sent to Polaris only to be told to talk with Dealer. I'm pretty patient at these things but it appears all too frequent. They've never heard of this, back and forth, and maybe a week and a half later some resolution if you keep pushing. So, you'll say I should have looked at the vents to make sure they match. Correct, and if you order anything it appears you should do so also. Sitting here frustrated for the umteenth time, just seems there is no attention to detail concerning this issue. Understand that the Dealer cannot expend hours on an issue Polaris should be on top of.

 

2007 Trail Touring Deluxe

After a Sunday sidebar with Dealer, standard advice is use the template as a pattern, says they toss the
templates as they never work out. So, out to the garage I go to fab it out myself. That's what they would do if I took it in for installation. Seems that it would be something along the lines of either Polaris sending me a template that matches my Louvers, or sending me a Louver to match my template but, they say that is not how it works. Kinda frustrating but, if it all works out I'll get over it. And that is how I gotta believe Polaris looks at it.

 

'05 550 Edge Trail Touring DLX

Good Lord, I wish I had seen this forum before I bought an '05 550 Edge Trail Touring DLX for my wife back in Oct'16. The thing was in excellent condition and only had 660 miles on it. I thought it would be a solid work horse and great first machine. WRONG!!! First outing (just last week), we were 30 miles in on the Denali Hwy and the engine seized. NOT COOL at -10 degrees. Anyway, I was able to tow it 30 miles back to the truck with no issues. It's at the Polaris dealer now awaiting trouble shooting. I'm thinking about calling them to let them know I found the problem.
Anyway, does anyone have a list of upgrades, mods, etc., that should be done along with an engine rebuild, to make this thing more reliable?

 

Good Lord, I wish I had seen this forum before I bought an '05 550 Edge Trail Touring DLX for my wife back in Oct'16. The thing was in excellent condition and only had 660 miles on it. I thought it would be a solid work horse and great first machine. WRONG!!! First outing (just last week), we were 30 miles in on the Denali Hwy and the engine seized. NOT COOL at -10 degrees. Anyway, I was able to tow it 30 miles back to the truck with no issues. It's at the Polaris dealer now awaiting trouble shooting. I'm thinking about calling them to let them know I found the problem.
Anyway, does anyone have a list of upgrades, mods, etc., that should be done along with an engine rebuild, to make this thing more reliable?

I have 8000+ miles on a rebuild that I did on my 2005 Trail Touring. I added the fan duct kit, oil bleed kit, and the additional vents for the belly pan. I never changed the jetting or moved the fuel pump. My motor had to be bored .20 over and I had to replace the crank (bearings were blue from a lack of oil).

 

550 Edge Mods

Hello BlackHawk6, Sorry to hear that you seized your 550. The main problem with this engine in the Edge chassis is where it draws in its air to cool the engine. Take a look at how close the engine air intake is to the muffler. It is drawing HOT air off the muffler into the engine. This is the main cause of burn downs in this engine. Look up posts by NorthstarRick. He is very knowledgeable and knows all the upgrades to "bullet proof" this engine. Best of luck with it, George

 

Owned a couple of those 550 polaris'. That motor is sensitive to climate change. After blowing a few Pistons on my first 550, had the engine rebored .010 over and mixed the gas as well as used the injection. Also jetted up. Once I started doing that, it was ok until I upgraded.

 

This thread is mind-boggling... the old 440 and 488 Fan cooled Fuji engines were bulletproof, we had a Indy Trail, 3 different 440 Sports, they all ran perfect for thousands of miles. I had always thought the 550 fan sounded like a great option for the value-minded, and without the worries of water pumps, getting enough snow on your exchangers...I can't believe they missed the mark so badly on these 550s that burn up. :dunno:

 

Yes the old Fuji engines were and still are great. Never had any trouble with those engines.

 

.. they just needs new pistons every 10k miles

 

This must be a widespread problem...

Look at how many times this thread has been viewed...over 95K :blink:

No doubt people are googling "550 Fan Polaris blown up" and finding this thread

 

I just picked up a 2003 Polaris 550 Edge Touring / 2 up with 750 miles on it. The previous owner never checked the oil reservoir and smoked the engine. It sat inside a barn covered up since 2012-ish. This sled is in beautiful shape.

Is there anyone local to Western New York that could possible provide me some guidance on how to repair this. After reading all the threads I am thinking I should just walk away from this thing. This is my first sled and just wanted something to cruise around my property on.

 

I guess it depends how bad it seized, it sounds like the 550 many times would burn up the crank bearings. You might need to take the cylinders off the examine it, if the bottom end is OK you could get away with new pistons. If you need a crank it could get expensive. If you decided to fix it, I know that Klispie machine shop in Hamburg does snowmobile engines. With only 750 miles, it would be a shame for it to be scrapped.

 

My wife and son rode our 02 trail touring in the Gen II chassis for many years.. It was a great sled..

 

We had 8 Polaris sleds in our family and our friends all had them also. Everyone of us blew our engines and we’re all rudely told the same thing. Fast forward 2 years and we’re all on problem free ski doos. I’ll never by Polaris junk again

 

you would think Polaris would not like the bad comments, but who ever is running the company has to be an idiot. this one issue cost them tons of sales. ski-doo benefitted from this.

 

You also have to cut a hole in the hood and add an intake vent.