Crankcase flush? Summit 1000

[SummitCrazy]

I ride an o5 Summit X 1000 and as most everybody here knows they have problems with sucking in the belt dust. I recently pulled the throttle body and reeds to do some inspection and cleaning and thought to flush the bottom end in an attempt to remove any crud without actually pulling the engine and splitting the case. The sled had 1700 miles of sucking dust before changing to the Timbersled clean air intake kit and the amount of crud built up on the reeds and throttle body was sickening but I never thought of flushing the crank until know. Ok, so with the belt off, plugs removed, reeds out I used a large syringe (the kind for measuring oil for mix) with rubber tubing attached to the end. I put three syringe full into each side of case and just started spinning the crank around, back and forth, swish swash like a washing machine and using a floor jack to tip the machine to both sides and then used the syringe to remove the fuel. YIKES!!! Now this sled, being SDI fuel injected does not get fuel entering in through the reeds to perhaps dilute some of the crud that enters in via the stock air box setup, but I had no idea how much was living down in that expensive crank area!! I put the crud in a white ice cream pale so I could see it after the fuel evaporated. The fuel came out as black as black gets, and not just from washing out some oil. Large granules the size of ground pepper could be seen mixed with what looked like fine black beach sand. Ok i am just trying to paint a picture here...
I repeated this two more times and the fuel was almost clear on the last try. I jumped in the truck, went to WalMart (it was late) and bought some engine flush and repeated one more time and then washed it again with fuel to clean out the detergent. It came out clean as clean gets. Now this crud is most certainly attributing to early crank and or bearing failures especially on fuel injected motors. Don't know if this is gonna prolong its life any or if a regular crank case flush would help on carbureted motors but as many DOO Rev's have the same type of air box design I wonder how many failures could be attributed to this?
Any body else ever try this or have any thoughts??? Cheers

 

[slomo]

how are you going to lube the crank bearings now,because the will rust and pit up from sitting dry,as well dont the skiduds have a grease packed bearing in the bottom?if so that one will be dry for sure,you may want to take it apart and have a look

 

[donnie]

I just replaced a motor because of the belt dust issue. It was screwed anyway from shrapnel so i decided to take it apart and see what makes them tick. The grease packed bearings are Sealed with a gasket so it shouldnt have washed it away but im sure you dont want the gasket drying out so i would start soaking it in skidoo oil rite away. Did you notice the difference between clutch side and stator side of the motor for everything being gummed up?

 

[SummitCrazy]

Thanks for the input. I was originally going to pull the motor and split the case and thought I would try flushing the thing first. Yes I forgot to mention I finished by adding a healthy shot of oil/gas mix and spun the crank to lube everything back up, ASAP, but those sealed bearings are a bother and I am still contemplating splitting the case. However if fuel is able to wash away the grease then they must not be sealed else they would be lubricated by the oil/fuel mix going through the crank when running, which we be just fine and dandy for this engine. Why BRP never did this to begin with is beyond me but I don't think flushing with fuel or engine detergent would damage any of the gaskets. Both sides seamed equally disgusting. I have never split the case on a 1000 sdi. Still under 1800 miles. Which bearings are sealed...just the ends or all six on the crank???

 

[donnie]

I have the same year sled as yours, and should be the same motor. If so, the gas isn't injected the same as other 2-strokes. It is injected into the cylinder via the injectors, not through the reeds and into the motor so the crank isn't getting a gas wash. There are little oil injectors on the bottom backside of the case running from the oil pump that shoot oil onto the rods and crank. There are i believe 4 bearings on the crank so the 2 outers are grease packed while the 2 inners get the skidoo oil. So just from reading and chatting on the forum i think this is why the 1000s have probs with gumming up, because there's no gas to wash off the internal parts and reeds and so on. If im wrong someone please correct me.