[Thunderbear]

Consolidated place to highlight my slow build of an 06 Sportsman 800 EFI.

As I picked it up, early winter.

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[Thunderbear]

Added LED bulbs to the rear to start, found one full of water after cleaning up a bit, so I replaced it with an eBay find. You can see the difference between the Sylvania and JSTAR LEDs and the OEM halogens.

Cleaned up with 303. Love that stuff.

You can see the 4GA wiring added for rear winch/battery jump in the hitch area.

Added a QuadBoss 2" hitch for winch, trailer, and cargo rack type accessories.

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[Thunderbear]

More on the rear winch: Terra 4500 Superwinch, with Masterpull 10,000lb 1/4" line, on a Curt 31010 winch plate. Custom solenoid and remote housing. 4GA copper jumper cables cut for Superwinch QD connectors, and ring terminal crimped and heatshrunk on the battery side.

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[Thunderbear]

Repaired the seat holes with some GearAid nylon repair packs. Planning on a Polaris seat heater to cover it altogether at some point.

De-safety-stickered awhile back. Also visible are the Polaris thumb and grip heater switches, the install of which I apparently forgot pictures.

Owning an older rig is a real good way to improve your Google-fu to find long discontinued OEM accessories like a front rack extension.

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[Thunderbear]

Since charging is always a challenge, in order to lower current draw and increase light output, I ordered a set of three 880 Morimoto 2Stroke 2.0s. Outside of Diode Dynamics SL1s, the Morimotos are one of the best LED headlights available, and are a much warmer color temp.

The bases of the LED bulbs are slightly rounder than the sockets on the Polaris, but a very slight trim (less than half a millimeter) and they fit perfectly. The fan is a challenge in the pod, so route your wires carefully in the pod, and I decided to use the Hella micro relays for more space.

While in there, discovered a wire on the high beam circuit was broken, so I added the three headlight relay mod while fixing it. Highly recommend the heat shrink terminal bulk packs on Amazon.

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[Thunderbear]

Which brings us somewhat current, to today. I doubt know if they didn't come with them or my front box is a replacement, but I wanted a retaining strap for flipping up a loaded front box. So rather than pay Polaris $20 for one, I built mine with stainless and plastic coated wire, stainless thimble, stainless eyelet and aluminum crimps. Used the stainless bolt and a washer for the rack extension as the upper attach point. Drilled out and tapped the lower holes which appear to be for this purpose.

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[Thunderbear]

Hmm, I wonder why I kept getting the overheat warning? Baked silt on the rad, plus steam leak means replacing with GPI Racing aluminum radiator and new 5410584 Polaris bushings for the lower mount.

Added the double tube bumper I bought a while back. Still painting the Rigid light mounts to go on. Sandwiched the plastic splash guards with the mounts because I didn't want to give up the protection.

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[FPD218]

Awesome upgrades, following as I also have a 2006 800efi

I’m going to do that front cover stop to mine... Thanks!


.

 

[SlowRoller]

Nice work, you've really breathed some life back into that thing. You been able to get out and have some fun on it yet?

 

[polman500]

Nice upgrades for that old 800. How's your seat bottom and exhaust heat shields look? That's a problem area with that machine.
Don't see how it ran more than a few minutes without overheating with the radiator clogged that much lol

 

[Thunderbear]

Awesome upgrades, following as I also have a 2006 800efi

Thanks. It was sold to me as an 08, but the VIN says otherwise. :| Oh well, still got a deal on it.

Nice work, you've really breathed some life back into that thing. You been able to get out and have some fun on it yet?

Little fun, little work. Since the overtemp warnings and steam leak, I decided to get a Trail Tech temp gauge. Unfortunately, multiple forum searches couldn't tell me what the inside diameter of the coolant hoses was, and I now have two temp sensor manifolds that are too small. 26mm is what I need. Mostly been using it for short trips and moving my trailer around the snow.

Nice upgrades for that old 800. How's your seat bottom and exhaust heat shields look? That's a problem area with that machine.
Don't see how it ran more than a few minutes without overheating with the radiator clogged that much lol

Funny you mention that. The seat bottom looks good, but the bushings were all smashed, so it sat crooked. Ordered new seat bushings, back to alignment. I pulled the right side panel and some of the shielding is scraped, but intact. I'm ordering some reflective heat tape to redo the side panel, cover the flimsy copper heat tape on the rear QD wire run, and cover and protect the two large connectors just above the radiator. Guess I'll add the seat bottom to the list.

I only did short neighborhood runs. The steam leak (visible here) had me questioning the coolant system, so the overtemp light only ever came on once this winter, and I immediately shut it down. In AK winters, things cool off QUICK.

 

[polman500]

The "feet" on the seat pan sit up high and rest on top of the frame rail. Over time they try to spread and slip off the frame rail causing the pan to crack and eventually leading to the seat needing replaced. You can fabricate side rails about 1/2" high that attach to the frame right next to the seat legs/feet to prevent them from being able to spread out off the frame.
I also had trouble with the exhaust pipe cracking under the heat shield right next to the seat where the header goes into a single pipe to the muffler. Excessive heat will also work on the side cover on the right side because of the skimpy heat shield the 06 had on it originally. Number 15 in the pic is and updated shield "kit". It is stock equipment on the 07. After having the original and a new replacement header crack, I discovered an updated "exhaust kit" Polaris put out to fix the problem. It consists of a two-piece header pipe with a joint, donut gasket and springs in the middle where the originals would crack. It too is standard equipment on the 07. In a long-winded way I'm telling you that if you have any exhaust problems just buy the 2007 header pipe and hardware to replace the original 06 stuff and you won't have any more problems.
I've got 18,000+ very rough miles on my old 2006 800 so I can tell you where the weak spots are lol. :grin
Here's pics of the 2006 dual exhaust and the 2007 dual exhaust side by side so you can see the differences.

 

[polman500]

There's a ready-made port on the thermostat housing that can be drilled out and tapped for a temp gauge sending unit or there are replacements available that already have the hole and threads for around $20.
Here's a link to the Quadovator kit with pics but you can DIY and source the gauge from the auto store. If you already have the gauge you can just drill and tap the housing to fit your unit.

https://www.quadovator.com/temp_gauge_kit.html

 

[Thunderbear]

If I'm reading that right, looks like the only new parts needed are 6, 12, 14, 23, and 28, with the rest of them shared between years.

Any aftermarket exhaust solutions you'd recommend to solve the problem?

I'm interested in dumping the "extra" exhaust in favor of mounting a second battery on that side, would a less restrictive can help the heat issues?

 

[polman500]

If I can find the number there's an actual KIT with everything needed. Individually you'd need 6, 12, 14 and 16 (pipes, gasket and updated shield) plus 28 and 29 (springs).
Aftermarket slip-ons sound like crap on the 800's IMO and I don't like loud for my woods machines so I can't help you there.
If I wanted to eliminate the extra can I'd look at putting on a 2007 OEM single exhaust like pictured below that came stock on some machines.

 

[Thunderbear]

If I can find the number there's an actual KIT with everything needed. Individually you'd need 6, 12, 14 and 16 (pipes, gasket and updated shield) plus 28 and 29 (springs).
Aftermarket slip-ons sound like crap on the 800's IMO and I don't like loud for my woods machines so I can't help you there.
If I wanted to eliminate the extra can I'd look at putting on a 2007 OEM single exhaust like pictured below that came stock on some machines.

Not a fan of loud either, on anything that isn't my motorcycle. Was halfway wondering if anyone had converted the left side of the dual exhaust into a second muffler by welding up the primary exit for extra sound reduction

Betting that sure wouldn't help the heat issues though, with the backpressure increase.

 

[Thunderbear]

On to recent developments!

Rigid Industries Dually is one of the best priced upgrades from bargain basement no-name Chinesium LEDs. Regularly found on Amazon for around 130ish, these will more than likely change your mind on budget LEDs. 1536 lumens each, these put out more light than a single 22" MicTuning LED bar.

In Coach's words from Letterkenny, cheap lightbar output is "F*#/ng embarrassing!" True lumen ratings are a really good thing.

Had to repaint the bezels after swapping them from the truck.

Fitting the 2" clamp mounts on the bar is challenging since you have to open the clamps so wide, as well as drill out the mount tabs for the 5/16" cap bolts Rigid uses.

Hardware is super tucked away. Have to put the brackets on without the light due to lack of space, then add the light after to align, then remove again to tighten everything

Tucked back behind the bar for impact protection, as well as behind as much of the winch cable zone for angled pulls as possible.

They recess pretty well, despite being fairly bulky for a 4 diode pod. The Baja Designs Squadrons are positively svelte in comparison.

Didn't impede access to the clutch, which is, well, clutch. Even a thick gloved hand should be able to freespool and lock

Wiring goes right behind the winch mount, there are access holes perfect for a clean wiring layout.

 

[Thunderbear]

The new lights need a new switch. Doesn't take too much work to enlarge the cutout for the worklights.

Waterproof double pole double throw lighted switch. Took about five years to ship from China, but smallest I was able to find to fit in the pod. I on the left goes to front Rigids, II on the right, to the worklights.

Shown here with the Trail Tech temp gauge. No more wondering about coolant temperature.

Sportsman coolant hose diameter requires a 26mm adapter, so make sure you order that size from Trail Tech, instead of the 19mm, then 22mm adapters I ended up with. My 26mm adapter should be here tomorrow.

 

[Thunderbear]

Also ended up installing the Quad Logic rear bar. The finish from QL is just really smooth almost gloss, so I wire wheeled it, hit it with acetone, then adhesion promoter and Rusto bedliner spray that I maintain a supply of in the garage for projects like this. Finish more matches the OEM Polaris black wrinkle.

Really impressed with the adhesion promoter, going to have to stock it in the garage.

Bar touches the plastic under the lights slightly, may have to heatgun that back a bit.

Fits very flush with the rear rack.

Now have a handle for deadlifting the rear out of a problem area. Also the 1.25" hitch shackle for a rear winch pulley point is visible here. Spendy little buggers, 1.25" hitch accessories...
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[xOUTLAWx]

That 800 project is coming along nicely. I may have to get some leds too. I prefer the twin blocks like yours instead of the obnoxious two feet long bars that scream “look at me”.