[cflowers]

Sunday afternoon I decided to check my air filter cause it had been about 60 hrs sense I had serviced the ranger. When I did i noticed that my air filter had a little touch of oil on it. Didn't give it much thought and cleaned it up and stuck it back in. After a few hours curiosity got to me so I decided to go take another look. Took the hose off from the air box to the throttle body and found a layer of oily dirt down the length of the tube and on the flap on the throttle body. Dang. So I cleaned it up and put it back together. Called the dealership today and they said that it was blow by and that it means the top end has ingested a lot of dirt and it will keep basically burping the oil out. I have the option of paying them $70 to do a compression test and leak off to see how bad the damage is. Told him I might just use it for a little while to see if it gets worse. Got home from the ranch today and decided to take the throttle body off and look behind there and this is what I saw. A pretty good amount of oil and dirt. Now my question is should warranty take care of this or do you think it will come out of my pocket. I'm thinking new top end for sure but wouldn't have all that dirt and crap got the rings by now also. New Motor would be nice but I bet that doesn't happen. It could have been my fault by not getting the lid on the darn air box right but then again it might have been letting dirt get around the filter sense day one. It has 102 hrs and 780 miles.

 

[commanderjjones]

I guess the main question is was dirt getting by because YOU didn't get it sealed well or is the seal itself defective?

Regardless, I don' think the oil should be coming back out to the air filter.....but maybe I'm missing something?

 

[cflowers]

Yes that would be the question and one that I can't answer b/c who looks down the tube between the air box and throttle body on a new machine. I sure didn't think about looking to see if the darn filter sealed good and was doing its job. Just figured it was. I mean how hard is it to put a air filter in. Probably changed at least 200 air filters between tractors, skid steers, trucks and atvs but I guess on these you have to have a PHD to do it right. lol

 

[powertech50]

Blowby means the rings and or cylinder wall wear has occurred. The combustion pressure blows by the rings and into the crankcase. The pressure will have to vent from the engine. Monitor the engine crankcase vent hose with the engine running. You can just remove the smaller crankcase hose from the air box and visually look and feel if their is excessive pressure coming out or if oil mist is also present. If so, this would be a sign of excessive wear and probably only a rebuild would take care of. If dust was present in the intake tube it had to get by the air filter.

 

[cflowers]

thanks powertech.....I did exactly what you are saying here. If you put your finger over the blow by hose that connects to the top of the air box, kinda like putting you finger on a garden hose there is some air coming out. there is probably a quarter to a half inch of oil and dirt in the intake manifold as we speak. thats what the pic is trying to show.

 

[Tushar]

So is this something that would be covered under the warranty?

 

[alloutdoors]

I think Jerry nailed it and can only imagine their view/interpretation on "who" made the mistake, and wish you best outcome. One thing that does strike me is the level of need to monitor the air box and ensure it’s clean and sealed properly.

 

[Lovintheride]

Just dealt with polaris and a good dealership on this. This is what I learned. .... first off nothing is broken, your rings are now worn due to ingesting dirt. It dont matter why your rings are worn, they are just worn. Rings are treated like brake pads thru Polaris. My Ole 2012 Ranger still under warranty was blowing a quart of oil every 10 hours out the crankcase vent and the compression checked out low. But, NOTHING IS TECHNICALLY broken. Warranty will fix what is broken, not what is worn. The dealership will have to do a motor teardown on your Ranger and if they see that the rings are worn and maybe the cylinder Polo is will decline. And if they did accept the motor would not be replaced, just the obvious worn items replaced, but it wouldn't be warrantied. Plus if dirt got by the sir filter that would not be polaris fault unless the casting of the air box is obviously deformed.

Needless to say I did the top end job myself ... all information above is straight from my really good dealer and from Thier experiences with trying to get that kind of stuff warrantied, in 12 years he had never seen a top end job get warrantied without something being "broken"

 

[cflowers]

I did talk to the dealer again and said they would do a compression test and leak test to see how bad it really is. Said probably need the top end redone and possibly rings. I just can't see getting the top done and not the rings. Am I missing something. Wouldn't that be where my oil is coming from? Around the rings. How much do you think this will set me back? Thanks for everyone's comments and help.

 

[Tushar]

Please excuse my ignorance but what is the "top end". Is it something that is fairly straightforward to fix, That can be done at home?

 

[trog]

I think that would be valves intake ect nothing below the head T&S

Please excuse my ignorance but what is the "top end". Is it something that is fairly straightforward to fix, That can be done at home?

 

[powertech50]

Lovintheride pretty much summed it up. I submit warranty claims at my job all the time and what has to be determined in every failure is the root cause. I have seen engines come in with major damage and they failed due to a specific part had broken and the rest of it failed as we call it progressive damage. The root cause would be that specific part failure (warrantable if in coverage) or it could have failed due to a worn out part from lack of maintenance (dust injestion) which is not warrantable. If your having trouble keeping oil out of the vent tube then the rings and cylinders have considerable wear. You can have that checked as you have stated but if your going to run it much at all be sure to change the oil out because that dust is in there acting like sandpaper to all the internal components.

 

[cflowers]

Hey powertech! What would you guess the bill would be for the top redone and rings. Sense you aparantly work at a dealership. If you don't think anything will be warranted I'd probably be better off getting a guy here local do the work. Live two hours away from where i got the machine. But would kinda like to have a guess to what the dealer will charge.

 

[cflowers]

Yes the oil was changed the day of the discovery. Ran it a few hours the next day and kept checking the blow by hose for oil and every time I checked there was some in it. That's when I decided to pull off the throttle body and take a look in there.

I haven't got it to the dealer yet probably be next week. So pretty much from what your guys are saying its probably going to be all on me cause apparently I must have over looked something and didn't get the air filter in just right.

Unless.... from what you guys are saying if there is a crack in the air box or hose with a hole in it, then that would be covered under the warranty, but anything past that like anything with the engine wouldn't covered????

Makes you wonder why they have a warranty at all if they aren't going to stand behind their stuff. Sale's pitch maybe. Don't get me wrong here, I'll be the first one to admit if I screwed up...so i guess i'll see what they find out next week.

Anyone know how much something like this is going to cost me in case they don't warranty anything. Just a good guess would be great.

 

[nFLOW]

We sell the complete Remanufactured Polaris 900xp engine for $3,370.00(core exchange). Free shipping! All you have to do is strap your engine to a shipping skid/pallet and we take care of the rest. Our engines are backed with a 90 day limited warranty. If you have any questions just let us know. We will be glad to help. Hopefully you get the engine covered under warranty! Good luck! www.nflowmotorsports.com

 

[Lovintheride]

At the best shop in out area Performance ATV a ring job with parts is around $450, a new cylinder doest cost anything in labor but the part I think was over $350. I was quoted a little over $800.

There are alot of YouTube videos that show you how to do a top end on a Ranger and RZR. Most problems are a result of running a uni or k&n filter our not sealing the air box

 

[Woodsrider]

Dirt ingestion will also damage intake valves and valve seats along with all bearing surfaces be sure to check them all.

 

[Tushar]

Most problems are a result of running a uni or k&n filter our not sealing the air box

I thought the UNI air filter was supposed to trap more dirt than the factory paper??

 

[GHall]

I have 200hrs on my 14' 900 Crew. I live on a ranch and drive 100% on dirt roads. I just went out and checked my filter and saw no oil on the filter itself. I then looked inside the top half of the air box and saw no dust or debris. I did however notice the vent tube weeping a very small amount of oil into the air box. It looks to me a small amount of oil is normal?

 

[fswan]

I thought the UNI air filter was supposed to trap more dirt than the factory paper??

Common misconception from what I understand. However, the UNI's are cheaper in the long run, and hold up better.