[JPEEL15]

Last week while ice fishing I was coming back to land about two miles from the truck , was going about 10 mph and the oil tank side blew off, sounded like a shotgun going off. Ended up ruining foot well when it went off. Shut down machine as soon as I could. Then turned machine to on position without turning it over to operate winch to connect to sled that would end up towing me to shore. However when I turned it to on position flashed HOT HOT HOT. was more upset about breaking down at moment, got atv into truck which was a chore. Go to take atv off truck and notice coolant in bed of truck on snow, pulled off truck and place in garage for night. Today took all plastic panels off did a compression test couldn't get past 56 psi !!! spark plug looked good and drained remaining oil in motor, which was nothing really. coolant tank before I went out was a min level on tank and now theres nothing in it!!! Not sure where to go from here besides getting a new oil tank !! Thinking leaking head gasket? any ideas ? Also drained front diff and tons of water in unit gonna rebuild it soon. Thanks in advanced for your help .

 

[Amdforever]

Yikes

For the oil tank, you'll have to get a new one obviously but make sure the vent line to the new one is clear. If you use the old one then make sure there is the factory slit in it. From what I've gathered on here, the water vapor after running will freeze in that vent tubing and form an ice plug causing the blow out. There's suppose to be a slit in the factory tubing that fixes that, not sure if that's for your year group or not though; hopefully others with more experience with your model will chime in. How long did you ride it before shutting down? Did it sound like it was knocking before you shut it down? If you were quick enough, you likely didn't do any internal damage.

For the coolant, you need to find out where its leaking out of it. Likely that it cut a coolant hose or something during the explosion! The HOT flashing is probably due to the lack of coolant in the block from it draining, so I'd start with the inlet hose that feeds the water pump and trace back to the radiator. Fingers crossed it didn't cause any warpage from loss of coolant while still hot.

 

[JPEEL15]

Thanks for reply, wasn't more then 30 seconds after I heard the bang to time I shut off there was a pile of oil on the snow where I stopped it. noticed in air box there is oil all over, sprayed everywhere coming out of left side of air box near top . Did find the slit on the vent line , so not understanding why this happened . yes store machine in a heated garage, but have snowmobiles as well and they don't have any issues . really hoping I don't have to rebuild this machine now . read about decompression when starting , so maybe that's why getting 56 psi on compression tester. Did the engine get hot enough to boil coolant? I cant find any leaks at water pump or any of the hoses. the rad only took 200ml to fill

 

[JPEEL15]

Didn't notice any knocking sounds when I shut it off. My friend said to put some fogging oil in it and pull it a few times to see if its seized up . Should I just take and replace head gasket and see what else is wrong in there?

 

[InRBigness]

You did not boil out your fluid. I would think that you will be fine if you did not run it after it happened. It will run with the remnants of oil in it without doing a ton of damage for a min or two. The problem lies with the fact that the vent tube on the top of the reserve tank got some condensation and moisture in it that froze and allowed the oil to build up a ton of pressure.