Air intake mesh torn - is this a concern?

[Coldfinger]

I was looking at a used 2019 Summit and the right side intake, the front 1/3, was torn loose. How big of concern is this if the sled had only been ridden a few hours after the tear? I believe it happened at Rabbit Ears the weekend of the 20th. what about if it had been ridden more than a few hours, like all day or multiple days boondocking?

 

[duncan76]

As long as it wasn't over the hood deep powder you should be fine

 

[Coldfinger]

I was told by a dealer that it doesnt take much snow injestion to ruin the pistons and cylinder coating. Now how much snow injestion is needed to cause damage is my concern. Can’t say I have ever payed too much attention to the matter until I was reading in the Cat Ascender comments regarding how many of their air boxes were not sealed very well a few years ago from the factory and engines were needing piston and cylinder replacement after injesting snow.

Over the hood pow would not be good for sure.
A wisp of snow here and there would probably not cause issues.

How much snow does it take in one shot or many little doses to cause problems. That is my concern and I realize that is tough to answer. I know my Summit 670x 1999 had a very porus filter on the dash and would have to be taken out and hit on something a few times to remove most snow, then slap it back in, and I am sure some snow entered either thru the filter while riding or during filter removal or replacement. I had north of 5,000 miles on that machine when I sold it and it still ran great.

 

[Shortline]

It doesn't take much snow at all. It's all about the rate of ingestion. We lost an engine just last weekend due to snow ingestion. In this case it was a young rider that noticed the tear (it was pretty big) but did not realize the consequences of not addressing it.

Every time I have torn my intake I immediately (in the field) put a 1/2 inch strip of monster tape along the tear. I use a dry microfiber to dry the frogskin material and I warm the tape on my exhaust to get good adhesion. It takes like 5 minutes of work to eliminate a whole lot of concern. I also carry a sheet of Frogskin material in a gallon ziploc in the bottom of my tunnel bag for those really bad situations. It weighs nothing and takes zero room. You can buy a huge sheet directly from Frogskinz for like $40. The new lightweight hood has some unfortunate locations for the intakes so I just imagine junk dropping in there, hence my preparedness although it hasn't happened to me yet.

Here is the way I would look at the situation... if I was the buyer. This owner isn't conscientious enough to fix something like that before showing it for a sale? Even if the "fix" were to tape it. How well was the sled really taken care of?

 

[Coldfinger]

Thanks for your opinions.

I did see a used sled photo with a piece of metal riveted over the intakes to protect the screens....The metal had many holes in it....kinda like those radiator protectors dirt bike riders add to the front of their radiators to help keep branches and stuff from bending the cooling fins.