[too slow]

Their a reliable sled if not messed with period. You can tweak the clutching for more performance, but i'd not go further unless its planned only to be raced. I had all sorts of combination 500 indy mods back around 92, even oval raced one with an slp rz 500 top end. The fuji 500 engine just doesn't tolerate engine mods well that produce more heat.
As far as the weights, you mean 10m5? Those sleds stock had 49.5 gram weights i believe with a gold spring that had low engagement.

 

[too slow]

As far as mpg, depends how its ridden and the conditions. You should see around 12 mpg on groomed trails as long as everything is stock. I would think the newer style rack carbs would deliver sharper throttle response to. When i converted my 38 round slides to tm flat slide 38's, it was a big difference.
To be honest i never became a fan of the fuji 500 unless totally left stock.

 

[too slow]

Even my Indy trail uses more fuel than my 500/700/800 Edge sleds did. But those edge sleds with the fuji motor were pretty darn good sleds, just leave it completely stock. I mean go through it front to back and set everything up properly. Run it the way it came and enjoy it for a nice trail cruiser that gets you home at the end of the day.

And if being honest I think a 500 ves or non ves or 600 ves is just as reliable, better on fuel, more power and easier to get parts for the motor.

There's a ton of parts around for a fuji 500 twin, just comes down to years. I can't recall how many of those engines i blew up over the years, but definitely at least 3 a year were epic failures at 9600 rpm till i went with a 95 fuji 600 triple which didn't turn out much better.
Imo, the ves 500 or 600 is the way to if wanting to run them hard. Don't even think of it doing the same with the fuji 500 twin.

 

[too slow]

stock im told they only spin 8 k max. i guess the above is why u stress keeping it stock.

its weird, ive read threads that people say this is arguably one of the most reliable engines polaris built, but on here the opinions appear quite abit different.

if its a timebomb i might just as well pass.i thought the thing was bulletproof.

Its a bulletproof 8k rpm engine left perfectly stock, and ridden at normal trail speeds...that means within the trails speed limits. They just don't like high rpm for long periods. Especially doing porting, and higher compression with pipes. The extra heat, and rpm they make will destroy them. I've run nose cone radiators which helped, but the issue is the engine itself not having the coolant capacity internally to make a mod. The fuji 440 twin had just barely enough.

 

[too slow]

Indy 500 (488cc) is a solid reliable engine. Just leave it stock. My old man spent a bunch of dough back in the 90s on the 500 engine. Boring, porting, welding and remachining the head, netted 72hp on the dyno at Midwest Dyno in Illinois. A N2O kit in the air box and a little race fuel made just over 100hp!

A stock 500 ves engine made 105!

The slp rz 500 i raced made close to 100 hp with 44 carbs and twin pipes, but still wasn't competitive against the rotax's. Not only that, but it was a time bomb. The guys even gave me a cheft's hat. Stock those 500's made 72 hp on a good day.

 

[too slow]

They are solid engines.One of the race sleds I work on is an f500 which requires the use of a bone stock fuji 500.That poor thing took a beating last year and never let us down even after it finished a race with no water in it….twice.Opened it up to find minimal damage….amazing.

I wish i had luck like that. Back in 92 i couldn't get them to hold up due to excessive heat causing blown head gaskets, and pistons. Can't tell you how many pistons i smoked.

 

[too slow]

I had an 89 new.Put a pipe on it and it ran perfect for about 9000 miles.It finally blew up and I swapped a 600xcr sp reed valve engine and triple pipes into it.It was my first engine swap.That thing flew with that 600

I had a stock 92 indy 500 for about 2 rides and blew it up, might of gotten some bad gas idk, but i was awful hard riding it for the first 400 miles in quebec mostly wide open to stay with some of the 650 guys. Recall leading going up a long hill on a main trans trail pinned w.o. for about a 1/4 mile, and with no warning felt the engine cough, and nothing...engine was locked up. Got towed to the motel by a buddies 650 where i pulled the top end the next day. Engine was done, both pistons had broken ring lands, and skirts with a mess of aluminum pieces in the bottom end. Eventually got the sled back home for warranty where the dealers service manager couldn't believe what he saw.

 

[too slow]

The latest edge 488 liquid models had flat slide carbs correct?

Seems i recall the 500 fuji l/c started using those rack flat slides around 00, or 01

 

[too slow]

My buddy's 2001 500 has flatslides. Says High Output on hood.

I know they had flat slides, but never saw one that had a high output decal....gotta wonder if that was added by the owner from some other model. I had a 2001 xc 600 ves edge. I think it had something like high performance 600 on the hood.

so same carbs as a ves 600?

Yep, just different jetting.

 

[too slow]

No engine pics?

IMO it's hard to go wrong for $1,500 CAD. I had an older 500 Indy, it was a 1998 with the X-10 rear skid. Decent little sled for smooth trail riding.

Idk if the later edge indy 500's came with ryde or fox shocks...probably not. if the case its not going to ride as smooth in rougher conditions as the xc edge.

 

[too slow]

older white wedge xc's/xcr 600's had the 'high performance' sticker running down alongside the hood venting.

I had few sleds that had some sort of bs like that. Just can't recall them all. I think those later twins had some ves decal to.

 

[too slow]

Imo, you can't make a normally aspirated 488 lc fuji engine 100, hp and claim it bulet proof. I had too much experience with them. The non ves liberty 500 is another story.

 

[too slow]

A stock ves 500 makes over 100 HP. The non best 500 were down a few ponies. The ves system was worth about 400 rpm.

Yep, we dynoed the 99 liberty non-ves 500 at 92 hp. Supposedly the ves 500 is around 104-105 hp. We made more hp with a 95 440 lc fuji that was modified, and reliable than any 488 lc that ended up a time bomb back in the day. I don't know if polaris made any improvements with the 488 engine design since then?, or its still the same old iron sleeve engine.

 

[too slow]

Thanks hhanks

Thanks for good memories, Ray was the best I remember taking cranks to him in my oval racing days, I had one of those cranks go bad on a 91 Indy 500

Ray did all our cranks to. He did my 440 and 500 oval sled cranks plus my 95 xcr 600 trail sled. He was the best.

 

[too slow]

correct. the Indy 500 is basic. no progressive springs. and so on. however it will be a great sled as far as reliability goes. it's an edge so it won't be terrible.

I've ridden entry level edges with those throwaway shocks....big difference in ride quality than an all rebuildable fox, or ryde sled. Maybe at slower speeds those sleds are ok with those shocks? idk

 

[too slow]

Personally I don't think you can go wrong with it. Ride it the way it is, don't try to make a rocket out of, enjoy the simple dependable sled that it is.

A rocket the fuji 488 will never be. Left stock its just a nice dependable mild mannered trail sled. You might even hit 90 mph on the dream meter if all conditions are just right.

 

[too slow]

I had Ohlin's on a Storm, I never had shocks that had as good a ride as those did.

I had 4 ohlins on my 95 xcr plus my oval xcr 440 sled used them. They were difficult to get valving components for them. Jeff at aaen sent me everything he had in stock to help, but i was finally able to get my bike tuner involved where he did did some magic with them. They were unreal compared to fox at the time. I never had to rebuild them again once they were dialed in.

 

[too slow]

Along with our engine builder i toyed with those 500 fuji's for years with various 500 builds. It got to a point you could get just so much power from them before they would grenade when push hard for an extended time. I think we tried everything humanly possible, but those 500's just wouldn't take the same abuse the fuji 440 would with similar mods.

 

[too slow]

to make a 488 fuji liquid reliable. you have to use stronger connecting rods, weld cat reed flanges ( 600 triple) over the carb. ports and use cat reeds. coolant flow through the head has to be improved. flannery can get 125 h.p. out of a free air 440 from 1975 pretty easy to get 100 h.p. out of a 500 fuji. like i said most do not know what to do with these. we actually made a water manifold like was used on the RXL reconfigured the water pump. no longer going into the mag side of the mono block. and we actually have a custom billet head for it. the stock cooling on these mono blocks, worked for the 340/400 not the 500. so people trying to get more h.p. not correcting this made them un reliable. we beat 600 xcr's etc. with this 500. limiting factor is the iron liners.100 h.p. is the limit. we were going to use 400 mono block bore it and have it nika -sil lined. just never got around to it. but i still have the bored 400 cylinder so maybe when i slow up a bit this will be done? that and custom twin pipes should get us close to 120 h.p.?

What your basically describing is what i tried when we went to slp and bought a rz top end. Yeah it was reliable but made less hp than our oem piston port 500's....lucky to see 100 hp from the rz. Ray hitchcock did our cranks welding them so there never was an issue with the lower end. I get the billet head, i had the slp rz with one. The part i don't get is with the fuji 500 cooling/water pump you did. Just doesn't seem possible. I'd love to see some pics.

 

[too slow]

Really anything is possible.Afriend of mine builds vintage mod race engines.They need to use the stock casting but anything goes.He basically welds the cylinder tight and starts over with new ports and adds reed valves.

That with adding reed valve castings to the intake i've seen and had. Its adding more coolant capacity internally around the cylinder walls for these fuji mono blocks that would be of my interest. Its hard enough to build one of these normally aspirated 488's over a 100 hp, but making it bullet proof wasn't possible when we were doing them. Imo, heat was the major enemy. When we did 440 fuji twins we were right on the threshold with the same issues, but they were manageable.