v2rider i just checked your profile and i see you're in Minnesota , you're not under a severe drought like we are here in North Ga. everywhere we ride here is nothing but dust ; last week i rode a 1/4 mile oval track i built close to my home on Ga Power right of way and when i got home i pulled the air filter it was almost stopped up from the dust from this short ride !

I use the Regular Castrolo GTX oil rated API SH and SG that is what my owners manual call's for , and i have used it since 1989 in my 86' Honda TRX350 Foreman 4x4 , my 1993 Suzuki LT4WD 300 King Quad ; i changed the oil every 200 to 300 mile's because of the condition's here in Ga even though it wasn't as dry here as it has been the past 2 year's !

Castrol GTX 10w40 winter and 20w50 in summer i have my local O'Reillys Auto Parts order this oil for me , my family and freind's i ride with ; i also do all the work of maintaining and repairing our quad's and they run the gambit Honda's , Yamaha's , Suzuki's , Polaris and Arctic Cat !

I'm the only one who ride's Arctic Cat and everyone i ride with are impressed with my 2006 AC 400 FIS Auto , the ground cleanance is the most of all the other quad's i ride with and one of the Yamaha's in our group is a 2007 Grizzly that has a lift kit and i still have an inch more ground clearance than the Grizz ; and my brother who bought my first quad a 1986 Honda TRX350 Foreman 4x4 has his eye's on my AC 400 he has already asked me about taking over the payment's on the AC 400 !

I told him to wait until Arctic Cat start's putting the 400 on the new redesigned chassis of the Thunder Cat 1000 , my Dealer told me that by 2009 or 2010 AC will be putting all of the Big Cat's on this chassie i'll have my 400 paid off in Feb. 2010 ; i will wait untill the new chassis design is used on all the AC's !

But don't get me wrong i love my 400 Auto it's just that the seat hight on the new Thunder Cat 1000 has been lowered 5 and 1/2 inche's to give it a lower center of gravity , but i'll keep the 400 at least untill i pay it off ; i got to test ride the new Thunder Cat and all i can say is it's to much power for me ; but i was very impressed with the ride it handled better than any Utility ATV i've ever rode this quad has more of a feeling of climbing into the cockpit instead of on top of the quad it just feel's more stable than the 2006 AC's !

v2 i almost bought the 2006 Arctic Cat 650 V Twin when i was looking to by my first AC , i test rode one , but i desided on the 400 because i didn't need the power of the 650 V Twin ; and i didn't want a liquid cooled engine to me it was just more part's to wear out down the road and the type of riding i do the Air/Oil cooled engine's have never let me down or ran hot !

The only work i do with my riding need's are the occational towing of one of the quad's i ride with and moving my pull trailer around the yard , i just don't need the extra power of the higher powered Cat's ; i've yet had to tow anyone out or even had to pull any of my freind's and family out of the swamp's because they're almost dried up ; i use to be the one who had to tow the broke down quad's and pull everyone out of the muddy swamp's when they got stuck with my old 86' Honda TRX350 Foreman 4x4 and 90 percent of the time i had to go around them through deeper mud than the stuck quad !

I didn't get to ride much in 2007 because i blew the pump seal on my 87' Chevy S10 Tahoe longbed pickup i hauled the Cat with , and my brother who hauled our quad's bought a new 2007 Honda V 1300 street bike and he let his 2004 Honda TRX350 Rancher 4x4 sit up all summer he was riding the street bike everyday i was tempted to go out and buy one of the new Can Am Spider 3 wheeler's ; i probally would have if i could find one in stock at the Local Dealer !

Sorry for another Longgggggggggg post v2 , and i know you love your 650 V Twin and want to protect it no matter the cost ; and i love my 400 and want to protect it as well and the Castrol GTX has never let me down i would use Ams Oil if i lived in the part of the country you live in !

You've got it made in the shade with all the trail's in Minnesota , here in Ga. we have only 3 trail system's we can get to within 50 mile's , and i love the hill's and mountain's here in North Ga. ; i just wish they would open up more trail's like they've promised us for over the past 18 yrs. only to have the greenies rain on the plan to open up about 100 mile's of logging road's after they cut the wood from part's of the Forrest !

Well i hope you're getting to ride as much as you want to v2 , and be safe when you ride ; so you can live to ride in the future !.....

 

Thanks. Yeah, I love the V2. It hasnt seen a shop yet for anything. It all comes down to taking care of your machines. I am VERY **** about that stuff. I regularly am premature on changing plugs, oil, radiator, diffs, ect..... to keep her in top shape. Sounds like you take care of your machine well. (just try to keep the water below the handlebars[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] ) Safe riding

 

Yes v2 i'm like you with regular maintaince on all my vehicle's my brother's and cousin's say that i change my oil more often than i need to , they kid me and tell me i'm going to wear out the bolt's on my quad from taking it apart and cleaning everything then loctite all the fasner's back in place ; one of my brother's that i sold my first and second ATV's to never changed the oil and filter and cleaned and reoiled the air filter !

He only changed the oil and filter on the 86' Honda TRX350 Foreman 4x4 once that i know of since since Nov. 2005 , and i kept telling his he would blow it up if he didn't start taking better care of both the Foreman and the 93' Suzuki LT4WD 300 KQ ; he finally did it when he was racing our nefew on his 98' Yamaha 350 Wolfverine 4x4 when the Foreman jumped time !

That has been almost a year ago now and he's talking about having me to rebuild it for him , i told him if i was him i would do the entire engine while we're at it ; but he want's to try just a timing chain but i told him i would know what all it will take after i tear it down !

I may change my oil to often like my brother's and freind's say i do , but i tell them it's not going to hurt the quad from to many oil change's ; i have a 11 year old Poulan string trimmer and a 25 year old Lawn Boy self Propelled Lawn Mower and both run as good as the day i bought them regular maintaince is the key to long life of any internal combustion engine's !.......

 

Great discussion and unfortunately very timely. My son emersed our 2004 Arctic Cat DVX 400 in water on Sunday. I was not there, but was told that they drained the water and put heet in the system. It won't start now and sounds like that may be a good thing because other that putting some heet in the system none of the other things like draining oil has been done.

I am a newbie when it comes to ATVs. So here are my questions.

1. Can you tell me point by point what I need to do?

2. Do you think a relatively intelligent person with very little mechanical
background can "get r done" or should I just suck it up and bring it to a dealer?

3. If I bring it to a dealer, what should I be careful of when it comes to them taking advantage? Any idea on repair costs?

Thanks for your help.

 

I have summarized what I have heard the group saying into the following. Can you fill in the gaps or correct where I have misunderstood.

1. Oil System and Crankcase :

a. Drain oil
b. Remove oil filter
c. Add cheap motor oil with Sea Foam
d. Replace Oil Filter (every time or should I run engine without???)
e. Start and Run engine long enough to warm engine and oil
f. Repeat Process of changing oil and Sea Foam mix (and filter??) 2 to 4 times until the oil looks like it did when it went in.
g. Add Regular Oil and Oil Filter
h. Does the Oil System and Crankcase plan take care of?
i. Entire Crankcase
ii. Cylinder Walls
iii. Pistons and Rings
iv. Seals
v. Gearboxes


2. Fuel Tank

a. Drain Fuel
b. Replace Fuel Filter
c. Add clean fuel with Sea Foam


3. Carburetor:

a. Drain the Float Bowl
b. How do I do drain the float bowl?


4. Air Box

a. Replace Air Filter