what do they do to make it an H.O.?

 

it's got a different carb, cam, and some other stuff. the 500 (normal) is actually faster on the top end than a sp500 H.O. the H.O just takes off faster.

 

I ran my '02 500HO against my brother inlaws '99 500 and pulled away from him not more than 1-3mph but still out ran him on the top end. I then put on a 700 belt and smoked him on the hole shot and doing a running start ran a much higher top speed.

I think Polaris advertized a 20% increase over the non-HO but I never saw it racing down a road until I put on the 700 belt.

If you thinking of trying to make your motor an HO forget it. It would cost you a ton.

 

PackardBell15

They changed the engine side cases, cam, crank (left stroke alone, but made the crank stronger), carb, and possibly the airbox.
Did I leave anything out? To truly convert to a HO engine takes a lot of dollars. However, you can put a HO cam in a non-ho engine, rejet the carb, and get some power increase.

Farmr

 

I have both the 500 and the h.o. , the differences I know about are the cam, carb and clutching and the muffler is also different (i believe only mounting and connection differences). I had to repair or replace my clutch (on the old 500) and opted to go with the whole EBS kit, after some investigation I found that it was a replacement for the h.o. I decided to try out the h.o. clutching specs and found it worked much better. The h.o. weights are lighter than the old 500's and seem to have a higher rpm for a given speed thus feeling like there is a little more power. I have more fun riding it now than when new.

 

Teamwhisky - Would you care to share a good source for sp500 parts ? I am also interested in a complete service manual for my 2000 sp500. My dealer has had my machine 6 weeks and can't seem to get fixed. As he says " We just sell um "

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

the big gains are in the cam,carb 40mm vs 34mm, and the clutching.

get a ho cam and a bigger carb 40mm cv or 38mm flatslide, throw in a clutch kit,for better take off and soo the engine turns higherrpms to match the cam,with a new helix for better backshifting, and you'll outrun a HO.

Btw, the ebs system kills low end, soo your better off without it.

and if ya still got money leftover, a highcomp piston and a full roller secondary kit will give ya big gains too.

just be carefulabout the crank and cases.

 

polmech- i ride with a guy that did what you said (cam, carb,filter, clutch kit) and he'd race H.O.'s with two people on it. all the other mods that a H.O. got don't increase power. his normal sp500 would do about 69mph (no i'm not lying) he also had an old Bayou 400 that would do 68-69 mph (this is also true, i clocked him, as well as a couple other people) they do like 47 tops when stock (bayou)

 

Madison, you can order a shop service manual along with a complete parts breakdown right from your dealer (or a reputable one). A excellent source of information can be obtained and decyphered from looking at the same parts for different year of machines. The updates they do to the machine every year are usually for a good reason, you just have to figure out why. Curiosity is getting to me, what is taking six weeks to fix??

 

The delay has been caused by the extended warranty folks saying the clutch is worn (30hrs) and has not failed. The dealer is telling him it is not normal wear.

I have done some research since my initial message and find that the cost of the repair is primarily parts ($350) not labor. Since the labor to replace the entire thing is only $90 I figured it can't take much to do it.

Regardless, my maintenance agreement specifies that the PVT (Polaris Variable Transmission) including clutch is covered. The warranty guy says only for failure and not wear (fine print). Looks as if I will pay and learn a valuable lesson.

Thanks for you reply. Any ideas would be appreciated.