The quirks of a carbureted sled

[eou_edu]

I'm shopping for a used sled right now. Right now leaning toward a ski doo with a carb. To my knowledge these are the only "modern day" high performance sleds that had a carburetor up until 2017. I realize most people gravitate toward EFI. For me a carb makes much more sense. I understand carbs well. For as much as I DON'T ride it makes more sense to me having something more simple. Obviously I want it to work well when I do ride it. But ability to store is big factor. I see vintage sleds from the 80s still running around. Farmers stick them in the field. Sometimes out in the rain. Sometimes they start them twice a year, sometimes they sit for 5 years. Sometimes squirrels make nests in them. 40 years later they are still running! It's not reasonable to expect an efi system with a computer, sensors and everything to run 40 yrs later. To me it's a billion times easier to rebuild a carb than chase down electrical gremlins. There are some cars built almost 150 years ago still running with a carb. I realize efi is pretty reliable as well but when it comes to simplicity and logevity, it's hard to beat a sled with a carb.

So my question for this post. What are some of the "quirks" with a ski doo carbureted sled? This post is all assuming ski doo built them until 2017 becaue they work very well. Do you have stumble problems? Issues running at higher elevation? Flooding issues? Have they left you stranded before? Are they significantly more thirsty on fuel and oil? What oil do they like? Are they much harder to pull start? Do you ever encounter problems running at high elevation? Will they still run if the CPU goes out, (I believe I read somewhere the CPU helps the carb run but they don't depend on it)? Smoke heavier? More likely to overheat? Rebuild the top end more frequently? Anything else someone should know?

 

[IDspud]

Had two carbed doos we took up to the cabin this year for spring snow.
Spent more time working on them than we had spent mechanicing since back when we ran carbed sleds.

No Thanks.

 

[eou_edu]

Had two carbed doos we took up to the cabin this year for spring snow.
Spent more time working on them than we had spent mechanicing since back when we ran carbed sleds.

No Thanks.

What kind of issues did they have?

 

[IDspud]

Jetting.
Flooding down low, flat up high on the same hills.
Fifty pull hot shut offs, etc.

 

[suva]

I'm shopping for a used sled right now. Right now leaning toward a ski doo with a carb. To my knowledge these are the only "modern day" high performance sleds that had a carburetor up until 2017. I realize most people gravitate toward EFI. For me a carb makes much more sense. I understand carbs well. For as much as I DON'T ride it makes more sense to me having something more simple. Obviously I want it to work well when I do ride it. But ability to store is big factor. I see vintage sleds from the 80s still running around. Farmers stick them in the field. Sometimes out in the rain. Sometimes they start them twice a year, sometimes they sit for 5 years. Sometimes squirrels make nests in them. 40 years later they are still running! It's not reasonable to expect an efi system with a computer, sensors and everything to run 40 yrs later. To me it's a billion times easier to rebuild a carb than chase down electrical gremlins. There are some cars built almost 150 years ago still running with a carb. I realize efi is pretty reliable as well but when it comes to simplicity and logevity, it's hard to beat a sled with a carb.

So my question for this post. What are some of the "quirks" with a ski doo carbureted sled? This post is all assuming ski doo built them until 2017 becaue they work very well. Do you have stumble problems? Issues running at higher elevation? Flooding issues? Have they left you stranded before? Are they significantly more thirsty on fuel and oil? What oil do they like? Are they much harder to pull start? Do you ever encounter problems running at high elevation? Will they still run if the CPU goes out, (I believe I read somewhere the CPU helps the carb run but they don't depend on it)? Smoke heavier? More likely to overheat? Rebuild the top end more frequently? Anything else someone should know?

There are lots of abused 30 year old efi sleds still running around too.

I am not a fan of EFI on my motorcycles and I currently own 2 carbed skidoos. They get substantially worse mileage, pull start harder, flood after rolling to get unstuck and run less consistently than the efi sleds I have had in the past. I'm not sold on the build quality of the Skidoos being superior, the French Canadian engineering is frustrating to say the least. I also think the Skidoos, particularly the older chassis handle poorly off trail.

The reason I have them is because of the price, if I were actually looking for a sled it would be a 2013-2020 or new model polaris. Or if I rode somewhere that had a good rental outfit I'd just rent a couple times a year and not deal with storage, maintenance, registration and transportation.

 

[bnorth]

With ethanol fuel you will be tearing the carbs down every season to properly clean them. Other than that flooding is the biggest issue. Park downhill and it floods or the worst is roll to get unstuck and it floods. Electric start helps these issues significantly though.

 

[NEWDUCK]

Ill be the black sheep and say my 07 carbd 800 ski doo has given me almost zero problems since I Bought it in 07. The slides did wear out a bit increasing the idle speed but thats about it. Up hill, downhill, upside down. Its never flooded out on me. No issues running form 4500-10000ft.

No matter the sled carb or efi if the computer goes out you are done for.

 

[Sheetmetalfab]

Yeah carb sled issues were in 1990-2006

An 09+ XP skidoo will have very few issues.

If it sits upside down holding it pinned and pulling twice usually gets it going.

Jetting isn't actually that finicky.

Parking it nose downhill hasn't been a problem since 2001

 

[BeartoothBaron]

I still love my old 600, it always worked great. I'm probably pretty close to having put the same number of miles on my Pro 800, and by comparison, that sled has 1) eaten a piston (thankfully, made it back on one cylinder 2) is a monster to start in the cold 3) recently acted up, then died on me due to water getting into one of the electrical plugs (eventually restarted though) 4) has intermittent fuel pressure issues - that may have been the cause of the piston going down (I'm thinking stator now, even though I swapped in a low-mile used one). To be fair, I've had issues with the 600 filling the case with gas from sitting, but that's mostly from a fuel pump rebuild (the aftermarket diaphragms are garbage). Remember to turn off the gas, and you can avoid that problem.

With iridium plugs (BR9EIX), I've rolled it over many times, and it's back going again after a few pulls while holding the throttle open. I did make the questionable choice of putting an ATAAC (temperature and altitude compensator) on it; that seemed to make it finicky off idle, and now I think it may have failed, so I'm planning on removing it. About the only place carbs really suck is if you have a lot of elevation variance, or if you're stuck running ethanol. Otherwise, I think it's easier to keep them going and going as long as they're not neglected or abused. They will use more fuel. They'll also occasionally flood or act up a bit from extreme angles and such. On the other hand, a lot of times they'll last much longer than an EFI sled because the fuel/oil wash keeps the piston and rod bearing cooler.

I will say, in defense of longevity and EFI, a friend wanted to ride my brother's old Indy 500 SKS EFI that's been sitting at my place. We put a few gallons of fresh gas on top of the 5-plus-year-old stuff in it, along with a cocktail of Sta-bil, Techron, and Berryman B12. It sputtered, then didn't went to fire for several pulls, but then got going (finicky TSS, I think) and has run pretty well as a field sled this winter. The battery is a huge pain on those though, and I'd probably go for a carb'd old sled over EFI because of it. If you forget about them for more than a couple months, it seems like they're toast; you've gotta pull it in the off-season and keep it charged.

At the end of the day, I kind of have a soft spot for carburetors, and while they can't fully match the efficiency and performance of EFI, they work well and can be more reliable (if anything) when looked after well. I am going to do the top end on my 600 and ride that more in the shoulder season, plus maybe take the two sleds out with a friend or two who just wants to try it out. I think the pistons are starting to go, plus relying on 20-year-old crank seals and such is iffy - but once all that's gone through, I'd trust it more than a brand new sled.