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Realistic engine life ( Miles ) for an 800 E Tec motor

21K views 60 replies 35 participants last post by  codooster 
#1 ·
A sled deal came up that i am interested in, Not a new sled, 5 year's old, but it's a one owner, XRS, bought new, and well maintained, almost spotless, the owner really looked after it.

I know 800'S, have their horror stories, and i know this subject has been beat to death on here, but it seem's conflicting , one guy blow's up with only 3000 and another guy is passing 10,000. Ya how we look after thing's play's a factor.

But really guy's, what are you hoping for out of your 800, or are these e tec motor's on borrowed time after 5000.

Going to look at this sled on the weekend, it has 6000 miles on it, 150 in both jug's, run's awesome, but i'm concerned about the miles.
 
#2 ·
I've yet to make it 3500 miles before they blow up. I've had 3 engines go on me so far. 2 different sleds.

2 others I ride with blew up this year, one with 2300 miles on. the other with 4600 miles

Another guy i know blew up with around 3300 miles on

Put it this way, out of everyone I know with a 800 etec NONE have made it past 5,000 miles on a motor
 
#4 ·
I've yet to make it 3500 miles before they blow up. I've had 3 engines go on me so far. 2 different sleds.

2 others I ride with blew up this year, one with 2300 miles on. the other with 4600 miles

Another guy i know blew up with around 3300 miles on

Put it this way, out of everyone I know with a 800 etec NONE have made it past 5,000 miles on a motor
Wow, If I needed a new motor every 3,000 miles I think I'd have to give up snowmobiling, or pick a new brand.
 
#5 ·
Honestly, I've been reading and researching a lot about them before I bought mine. Here's how I feel. First, depends on maintenance and care. And second, when people buy and 800, it's generally for the power and speed. As such, those that feel the need for those things will generally push it to the limit more often which equates to more stress. More racing, extreme high speed runs, over revving, etc. People generally don't buy it for normal trail riding. So point being, I think it's the general demographic of people who own the 800s to use them harder and faster and therefore they get worn out sooner.

It's not always what the data shows, but what's driving the reason behind the data. I believe that's why you see such a large difference in engine life expectancy. Notice the people that have blown one at low mileage often experience this more than once. Bad luck or riding style?

So really depends on how it was used/cared for and what you plan to do with it. To me, there are a lot of simple signs when looking at used stuff that can give you insight into the owners personality. Amount and type of aftermarket stuff, condition of garage and other vehicles, age, etc.

Sorry, long winded but that's how I would approach this.
 
#6 ·
^^^ X2

This sled has made it 6000 Mile's on the original engine correct? If that's the case the guy didn't run it pinned for the bulk of its life. At 6000 miles I'd almost rather see that it's had a recent rebuild.
JMO, but I'd say chances are very good in the next 1500 miles or so the motor is gonna need a refresh.
 
#8 ·
I would factor in a top end refresh. I think the bottom is fine for a while. There are deals popping up. Maybe pm me your budget and what you want as I cruise the classifieds several times a day,
 
#10 ·
While there are guys that have gotten over 10,000 miles on the 800 there are guys that only got 3,000. Before I switched to 4-strokes, I sold all my sleds when they hit 5000 miles, including 600 and 800 ETEC's, because I didn't want to deal with rebuilds or a possible failure.

There are a lot of factors when it comes to 2-stroke reliability beyond manufacturing defects regardless of the manufacturer...

- Adequate warm-up before running hard

- Adequate cool-down before shutting down after hard runs

- Quality fuel

- Quality injector oil

- Adequate overall cooling

- No air leaks

- Constantly running WOT

There will always the potential for a failure due to bad gas, lubrication issues, an air leak, etc in a 2-stroke. If you want the power of a 2-stroke, you have to play a little Russian Roulette.
 
#11 ·
i Guess the real question is can you get it cheap enough to justify a new motor if it comes to it? Never ran any brand past 5k with out a top end. If it's cheap enough and you have the know how buy it rebuild it and ride it.

Another question is how long you plan on keeping it? Resale isn't going to be high if you ride 2-3k and try and sell it regardless of what you do so keep that in mind when you buy
 
#14 ·
I'm a victim of 3,700 miles and she blew up. It's honestly a crap shoot. Yes sled was always ran with proper oil and let it do it's warm up every start up. I know a few different people who have put over 10,000 on them no issues. 6,000 miles is high but for the right price it's worth checking out. If you don't mind me asking what is he want for it?
 
#17 ·
The last 2 sleds I had were a 2012 renegade Adrenalin and a 2015 xrs spring spec. both 800's first one had 6500 when I traded and the second now has 6300, probably will have 7,000 at the end of the year Always enough warm up time before getting into it. only issue was on the 2012 clutch arm broke, not any engine issues at all. Did I mention on the 2012 I had 7,000 miles on the belt, and on the 2015 I just changed it last week with 6,000 miles on it. had to change it because it was starting to grab hard on take off. Like I mentioned before, how many people are on this site, thousands and you only hear of a handful of ones that blow up, if everyone wrote in and went on about the goods ones the site would be overwhelmed.

Skidoo does not offer a 4 year warrantee to it's customers and expect to stay in business. I have often wondered how many of those sleds blew belts and the ones that don't, when a belt blows your engine sometimes stopped right then, which puts a lot of stress on the crank, if the top end is going it could be not proper oil, bad gas, any number of things, do those things by the book and you won't go wrong. Some people might say "that guy does not ride aggressive" Not so. I used to ride with a guy who had another brand, had to buy rear view mirrors to see if he was still back there.
 
#18 ·
2016 freeride with some issues but almost 10 000kms and she hasn't blown. Still runs and pulls good!
 
#19 · (Edited by Moderator)
My 15 Renegade with 8200km went down 2 weeks ago, mag side ring melted. pretty sure it was due to the very hard snow conditions weve had in Ontario with the warm daytime highs and cool nights. I don't have scratchers either.
Every time my engine temp got up I would pull off and get in the deep snow but there was one time when it wouldnt come down as quick as it should have. After talking with a few very knowledgeable Skidoo mechanics, we suspect the ring/piston got some damage at this time but it then took about 250km before the engine finally clapped out. This isnt as far fetched as you may think.

I just put in 2 new cylinders 2 pistons. split the bottom end checked my crank bearings and cleaned them. crank run out was .001" and repacked the outer bearings. running just as good as it did before. back in break in mode. hoping to be out of break in mode by the end of next weekend.
will be sending my injectors out over the summer to have them cleaned. also had the dealer richen up the oil pump after break in is done.
 
G
#24 ·
6k on mine, runs fine but also planning on one last season or spring ordering. I ride solo mostly and not close to home so certainly a factor and considering a 600 but in first year? No normally my MO to jump on a new motor even if tech was vetted in 850.

Seems like with anything, myself included when have problems you hear more about than the ones that don't.

Not afraid of top end going before 10k but think about bottom outer bearings more than anything.

Life does varies unfortunately.
 
#25 ·
My 15 Renegade with 8200km went down 2 weeks ago, mag side ring melted. pretty sure it was due to the very hard snow conditions weve had in Ontario with the warm daytime highs and cool nights. I don't have scratchers either.
Every time my engine temp got up I would pull off and get in the deep snow but there was one time when it wouldnt come down as quick as it should have. After talking with a few very knowledgeable Skidoo mechanics, we suspect the ring/piston got some damage at this time but it then took about 250km before the engine finally clapped out. This isnt as far fetched as you may think.

I just put in 2 new cylinders 2 pistons. split the bottom end checked my crank bearings and cleaned them. crank run out was .001" and repacked the outer bearings. running just as good as it did before. back in break in mode. hoping to be out of break in mode by the end of next weekend.
will be sending my injectors out over the summer to have them cleaned. also had the dealer richen up the oil pump after break in is done.
Here is the pictures.
d2eec14f83d64cc95b7294a67e96ed0a.jpg
55acbab842f163a29e12f64c6b6df145.jpg


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I also forgot to mention that my dad had a 800 etec gsx with over 10000 problem free km before he sold the sled. And one of our riding buddies has a all original 600etec gsx with over 21000km which still runs like a top.

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In reply to the bold in the first post, it is not far fetched and a good account worth sharing. A hot engine gets more fuel to cool it down. With more fuel more oil is needed to match. I would assume the ECM gives it more oil, but I honestly don't know if it does. In any case it may be too little too late for the added oil.

When engine temps appear to be getting out of control, the first thing I do is stop to dump oil in the gas tank. It's not always easy when riding in a group and feeling pressured to keep moving. A trick to keep a sled running cooler in low snow is to go up in rpm to spin the coolant pump faster. On hard acceleration the RAVE fully open which helps to evacuate heat. So even if you only have a 300 foot stretch it is worth a quick wot acceleration. From your reply it seems that you are planning to be getting scratches so this will probably be a non issue, but it's something to keep in mind. A good digital temp gauge will show the immediate drop in coolant temperature that the stock gauges won't, even the digital read-out. The engine itself won't drop in temperature anywhere near as fast as what's showing on the gauge, but it will gradually cool down as more effort is made to keep the coolant flowing at a greater rate.
 
#26 · (Edited by Moderator)
In reply to the bold in the first post, it is not far fetched and a good account worth sharing. A hot engine gets more fuel to cool it down. With more fuel more oil is needed to match. I would assume the ECM gives it more oil, but I honestly don't know if it does. In any case it may be too little too late for the added oil.

When engine temps appear to be getting out of control, the first thing I do is stop to dump oil in the gas tank. It's not always easy when riding in a group and feeling pressured to keep moving. A trick to keep a sled running cooler in low snow is to go up in rpm to spin the coolant pump faster. On hard acceleration the RAVE fully open which helps to evacuate heat. So even if you only have a 300 foot stretch it is worth a quick wot acceleration. From your reply it seems that you are planning to be getting scratches so this will probably be a non issue, but it's something to keep in mind. A good digital temp gauge will show the immediate drop in coolant temperature that the stock gauges won't, even the digital read-out. The engine itself won't drop in temperature anywhere near as fast as what's showing on the gauge, but it will gradually cool down as more effort is made to keep the coolant flowing at a greater rate.
I have scratchers on my sled now so hopefully no more issues. When I had that time where it wasn't cooling down the way it should have, I stopped for 20 min at a club house on the trail to give it time to cool. I suspect this was all part and parcel to the beginning of the piston melting. I noticed a major difference when running 7000rpm down the trail vs running 6500 rpm down the trail. 7000rpm it got hot fast, 6500 seemed to be a little more manageable.

Oh well.
As my buddies like to say, its the way of the trail.

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