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11-12' 800 Pro Reliability

11-12' Pro 800 Engine Failure

  • Engine Failure - Piston Related (rings, skirt, etc.)

    Votes: 74 7.9%
  • Engine Failure - Cylinder Related (cylinder skirt, etc.)

    Votes: 60 6.4%
  • Engine Failure - Crank Related

    Votes: 63 6.7%
  • No Major Failure - 0-1000 miles

    Votes: 365 39.0%
  • No Major Failure - 1000-2500 miles

    Votes: 256 27.3%
  • No Major Failure - 2500+ miles

    Votes: 119 12.7%

  • Total voters
    937

GoBigParts

Well-known member
Premium Member
Nov 27, 2007
4,078
917
113
54
Michigan
www.gobigparts.com
Just an update. I never had my 2012 go down on me. I did have the top end pistons and rings replaced due to wear and scheduled around 2500 miles. I now have over 4000 and still running strong.
 
J

Jaynelson

Well-known member
Nov 26, 2007
5,004
5,541
113
Nelson BC
I just sold my 2011 with 2,500 ALL mountain miles on it.

- Original motor
- Blew 1 belt that probably had 1,000+ miles on it and blew due to my abuse that day.
- Warranty replaced the running board extrusions I slightly bent from jumping
- Rebuilt the clutch once - perhaps getting close again.
- Never overheated, always warmed up and cooled down
- Stock oil pump setting - added a "glug" or 2 of oil to each tank.
- Cleaned the power valves twice - could have gotten away with once.
- Bent 1 a-arm from hitting a log - force would have bent something on ANY sled. Probably could have pounded it back straight, but bought a new one and riding the next day. Would have bent a nun on a Doo no questions asked.
- Rebuilt both rear shocks

I had less trouble in 4 seasons of riding this sled than I did in any ONE season of my previous sleds. NO ONE I ride with on a Cat or a Doo had less problems than I did over 4 years. Sled still looks and rides great.
 
S

Snoweasel

Active member
Nov 27, 2007
99
31
18
Edmonton AB
2011 pro

Put 1500 miles on my 2011 pro, all mountain miles. Brought the sled in for a top end for peace of mind, had zero problems. Put a mtk fix kit in it as a precautionary measure, however the original pistons had minimal wear, cylinders no wear. Engine could have gone much longer. Good warm up and oil in the gas....premix.

I know this is heavily debated, I'm an engineer, and oil in the gas does help lubricate the top end, which these engines need....imo....because they do have excessive piston to cylinder clearances. These clearance issues have been progressively improved from 2011 to 2014. And the piston skirts have also been improved. Are these engines perfect.....no....no manufacturers engine is.....but imo good warm up and oil in the gas help.

the pro 800 is an amazing machine. I have no regrets. Im confident my 2011 would have gone 2500 miles without issues seeing the wear at 1500.
 
G

GMCRMK

Well-known member
Nov 28, 2007
927
211
43
SL,UT - IP,ID
Cracked cylinder skirt

While having the MTNK Fix Kit installed found Cylinder skirt cracked on my 2011. Caught it before kaboomed. 1st Engine work 3,100 miles.
 

900polman

Well-known member
Lifetime Membership
Nov 26, 2007
315
88
28
Ft Bridger WY
crank failure

My 12 started dropping rpm, running 7950 to 8050. slight vib. Took it the dlr to check it out. They found a bad exhaust sensor and replaced it and checked comp. 130 both cyl. told me my sled was fine. no runout checked. this was at 1056 miles. next day 1068 miles, kaboom. block crank and cyl all gone. who builds a good motor i can buy and trust. I dont have a core.lol
 
L
Jan 7, 2013
80
18
8
34
Casper Wyoming
So i got a dumb question, my 11 800 has picked a vibration at idle recently, sounds like its a poo thing anyway, when dinking with the clutch, i can turn the motor over very easily, like with one hand ... is that normal? I would think with decent compression you wouldnt be able to do that. .
 

BILTIT

Well-known member
Premium Member
Apr 9, 2011
1,682
482
83
45
Lloydminster, SK
Ya they are not difficult to turn over by hand. Check your compression and pull the exhaust valves and/or the exhaust y pipe to do a visual on the pistons and rings.
 

Devilmanak

Well-known member
Premium Member
Dec 12, 2007
4,982
2,193
113
52
Donnelly, ID
Interesting thing:
I didn't really realize how differently people ride their sleds, and I can totally see how one person can get 3000 miles on a Pro with no issues and another can only get 500.
Riding with a guy the other day, he was WFO all day, hills, level swamps, feet flailing off the back, pow turn to pow turn, he never let off until he buried it or ended up in a treewell/creek.
I watched an old video of a bud's, he held his sled wide open on a long segmented climb and didn't let off once. Like a minute wide open.
I have never done either of those things, if a long climb I back off and blip every now and then, I guess I baby my stuff?
 

fugly27

Well-known member
Lifetime Membership
Dec 31, 2010
79
74
18
British Columbia
She finally broke

Well 4600 kilometers and my 2011 finally had enough. Connecting rod on the mag side went , you could say it was catostrophic. Too bad it couldn't have waited one more season so I could see what 2016 has in store for us. Guess I'll fix her and get her backup and running.
 
U
Mar 6, 2011
1
4
3
'11 Pro 163 2087 miles = No Problems… So, Replaced pistons and rode.
'11 Pro 163 2032 miles = No Problems… So, Added Boondocker FC, RK Tek Drop in, 19/46/74 and rode.

Everything looked good inside. Turned free. Started back up 2nd pull on both. Start 1 or 2 pulls every time. I don't understand the bad rap these things get… Buy 'em up at $6K - $7K and go have a blast….
 

Sxrlar

Well-known member
Lifetime Membership
Nov 26, 2007
1,157
311
83
56
Wisconsin
LOL. no issues until it went down Friday afternoon! Not sure what happened yet, sled is at the dealers, I got the 4 year extended warranty when I bought it. glad i did!!!!
 
O

onesnowdawg

New member
Dec 6, 2007
71
1
8
Vallecito CO
2012 pro with less than 1300 miles ate the cylinder skirt and grenaded my lower crankcase. Yes the pro rides like a dream in the mountains but sure disappoints in engine reliability. Guess I'll just write another check for a long rod fix. Hope it's what everyone claims it to be. I can't keep writing checks.
 

Dave64

Member
Lifetime Membership
Oct 22, 2013
28
15
3
Anoka, MN
11 with 1800 Miles

Upon further review, after taking my cylinders off to inspect, I found one of the intake skirts cracked, very hard to see until they started to hone them at Indy Specialties ( Going with the HG7 Finish) Thanks to them seeing the crack as I missed it in a hurry to ship them out. The pistons looked really good, no scuffs at all. The problem is they measured at 3.331 and 3.329, this was done using a caliper as my mics were not here at the time. What I thought was going to be a routine inspection and replacement with a Rev2 kit just made my choice to do it now instead of later saved me a ton of money and more importantly missed time on the snow. I want to thank all of you that have posted on here and HCS, sharing your experiences caused me to make the decision and not trust this in stock form.
 

05900

Embrace the BRAAAAAAP!
Lifetime Membership
Nov 27, 2007
10,692
4,556
113
Where the Buffalo roam
how many fix kits out for the cat and doo?

Several hundred :face-icon-small-ton

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