I used to have a link to a fellow who was really up on the XLT/XCRs and is widely regarded concerning these sleds, but it was a Geocities link and Geocities is no longer on the web. Perhaps someone else remembers who I'm talking about...?
Basicly the early 93-94 xlts were good machines. It was 95 to early 97 600 machines that had crank problems, with the xcr's having secondary issues with bad pistons in 95. The problem was the oil injection hole in the crankcase for the PTO bearing was about a third smaller than the other two cylinders resulting in bearing failures at the PTO end. This propblem was further worsened by the addition of triple pipes on this motor, which puts more stress on the crank with the increase in horsepower.
Late '97 model and-on Xlts had a wider pto bearing and 4-line oil pump with a 4th line feeding just the pto bearing (my "97 XLT RMK is a early 3-line oil pump). There are instructions on the web on how to properly drill out the pto hole and instructions for installing a 4- line pump and modifying the cases to fit a 4th line. I found a lot of information on this subject at
www.hardcoresledder.com which has a subsection in their forum just for the xlt's and xcr's.
My XLT has just over 4000 miles (I don't know how many miles w/ pipes, they were on it when I bought it.), stock other than the pipes. So far I have followed the advice Ive been told from others, which is to keep the oil pump turned up above stock to flow more oil to crank bearings, fog the snot outta it for the off-season to keep the bearings lubed, and stay below about 9200 rpm when running the tripple pipes. That high of rpms on that motor for sustained periods with pipes is hard on them. I haven't ridden it much in the last three years I've had it (three foot surgeries in two years
) but I love my XLT, its got enuff snort to move my fat butt around and I love that triple sound!!!
Good luck!!!