Hi! I have a 2001 Polaris Soortsman 500 HO that has been sitting in my dad’s shed for about 7 years after my dad gave up on fixing it. It had a problem with the stator and I went ahead and replaced that along with the coil, the voltage regulator and the cdi box. The carburetor was bad so I went and replaced that too. The next thing I noticed when my wife and me got to the easy stuff, we noticed the radiator was bone dry. The reservoir was empty for the coolant as well. I put fresh coolant in and drove it a little bit after we got it running for about 10 mins, everything ran fine. The next week I went to drive it a little bit harder just to make sure all the bugs were out of it, i reved it up pretty good and noticed the temp light came on. The next week I took the water pump cover off and all looked good, the fins spun over when I hand cranked the pull start, I replaced the water pump switch

sensor on the left side of the block, the sensor on the bottom of the radiator, and made sure the fan works. I ended up just hot wiring the radiator fan to a break switch on the dash of the console so I know for sure it’s getting air flow. I read from a lot of people the remote filler cap could be bad? But mine looks nice and round. Theirs were all egg shaped. Also there’s a possibility it could be the thermostat? And one guy said it could also be a bad bearing behind the mechanical seal in the water pump. It is a small bearing in the crankcase. Crankcase pressure may be leaking into the water pump coolant housing when the engine is accelerated causing the oil pump drive gear to 'walk' a little from the bad bearing letting crankcase air into the coolant system past the seals. Since the shaft drives the water pump and the oil pump, the oil pump rotor is cross pinned through the shaft on it's end so it will drive with a little movement from a bad bearing. If the shaft walks a little (climbs the driven gear) on the water pump end of the shaft from the bad bearing, this could be the result, getting air into the system and making the unit hot. Also the head gasket which I’m really hoping is not the problem but I’m wondering which path to take first and also how to check if it’s the head gasket? Thanks a bunch😁