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Hey all,
Purchased a 2000 polaris 500 sportsman last month and now my friend tells me the head gasket is done! When I test drove it, everything seemed fine. I brought it home and rode it a few times around my farm and then it started to overheat! After that, we checked and filled all the fluids, but the coolant kept shooting out. Anyone have this problem before? I'm kinda pissed that my new atv doesn't work and seems to be in need of at least $400 repair. Welcome input. thanks.

 

I have heard of this before. Sorry to hear about the head gasket.

I don't think $400 sounds right, if you do the work yourself you can save alot of money maybe, 100bucks tops for the parts. Its not hard to do with a service manual its ever easier.

 

If you do the work yourself it would be a good idea to check the head for warpage, it may need to be resurfaced.

 

Does it blow any white smoke through the exhaust? And I agree that you can save a lot by doing it yourself.

 

I didn't notice any smoke out the exhaust. It would just smoke and spit coolant out of the surge tank. I've never worked on any type of engine before, still think a novice can do? Thanks for the replies.

 

If the head ghasket was blown, then it would be burning coolant wich would produce a white smoke in the exhaust. You would also notice a loss of compression. Have you checked to see if your thermostat is bad? Does your fan even come on? As far as replacing the head gasket goes, if that is the problem, it isnt that bad of a job. I would HIGHLY recommend you pick up a Polaris Factory service manual. Do any of your friends have any mechanical knowledge that can give you a hand? With a service manual, it can walk you through the process. But, someone there with a little more experience would help.

 

To make sure i would do a compression leak down test, first see what the current PSI is, then see if the cylinder can hold this pressure at TDC it may go down some but not to 0 PSI.

Also, remove the radiator cap (before it gets warm) if coolant shoots out then its a blown head gasket, i remember a while ago i had a 3.8 in a ford thunderbird do this, the coolant shot out maybe 1ft or so in the air[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]

It may not smoke you might not even lose any power, a buddy of mine had a S10 ran great no problems so it seemed, but it would leak coolant right were the head meets the block, if i wouldn't have seen this you would have never thought it was blown it just depends where on the gasket it blows. so check it out they can be tricky.


I think you can do it with a shop manual, maybe Like BBS suggested get one of your buds over that knows about engines etc....

 

Check the oil. If it is a milky grey color then you know for sure its the head gasket...easy way to tell without doing a compression check.

 

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Wow! You guys are a wealth of info. I appreciate all the imput. I'm going to try the tests you recommended. I'm only guessing its the head gasket because that's what the polaris dealer said when he heard the symptoms. Maybe it IS something else. Thanks again.

 

how do you figure?