Hi, I have an 01 Sportsman 500 HO. I have a few questions if you could help a quad newbie out.

1. Other than Polaris oil, what oil should I use? (I am going to buy oil at RockyMTn)
2. How much oil in the trans and how much in the motor?

 

I use 0-40 amsoil 4 stroke in my 02 500HO scrammy with 265 hours
on it so far, but u will have to find a dealer for it. my polaris dealer
sells amsoil too. I also use a wix oil filter. my scrammy takes two
quarts for the engine, I don't know on the sportsman how much it
takes.

 

I have been told that using a different oil other than the polaris oil might be causing excessive valve clearance in it because of the hydraulic lifters. who knows though, gonna try it out one of these days

 

I have checked my valve clearance twice since I bought it,
they call for .006 on both intake & exhaust valves they
have checked out .005 both times, only needing a small
adjustment to bring them in. no excessive clearance in
my case at all on my 500HO using amsoil.

 

700hrs on my 500HO 5w50Syntic valves adjusted once......

 

How do you know if your values need to be adjusted??......Caper.........
Do you get oil blow-by???

 

No blow-by (that's the rings) You will get more topend noise with too much clearence, and maybe a loss of power. My ol' Scrammy got 3 years of abuse and the valves were never out of adjustment. And I even checked twice LOL

 

I know in my manuel for my sp 700 it says to use polaris full synthetic but if none is available to make sure to use a full synthetic 0w40 oil. the only full synthetic oils are mobil 1 and amsol. the others aren't truely synthetic only more refined mineral oil.

 

they tell u to check the valves every 100hrs. but a few things
with that said might be considerd
1) how would u know if u don't have a hour meter?
2) some have lots of slow or idle hours on them
3) once u know the history on on your valves they may
not change much (as in my case)

if u know your hours on the bike or u have ridden it alot
it would be wise to check them out to see where they are at.

 

Can I find the proper way to check the valves in my Polaris Shop Manual??.........Caper........