Polaris engine swap

Hi guys, I run a small engine shop as a sideline. I work on everything from A to Z. Have a question because I’m know there are members on here that are smarter than me and will know the answer to this question.

I have a 1997 Xplorer 500 with a blown engine. I can buy a new engine for my customer on ebay very reasonable for a 2009-2014 sportsman 500. The company says all they can do is go by the numbers so no they won’t guarantee it will fit. I believe it will bolt in and I might have to use my stator. Anybody have any insight?

Thanks in advance. Randy

Polaris has really good diagrams online, look at those and see if you can see a difference. You can make anything work, but those are different chassis so it won’t be a direct bolt in swap.

I have no idea about accessories or mount locations on the case but I do know they basically changed nothing from the 500 engine since 1996. I’m not 100%, but I imagine you would be able to make it work.

Thanks for the response guys. I have worked on a lot of 500’s and I do believe the mounts are identical. I too think that they haven’t changed much on these. Usually when you go to buy a part for an older machine the number updates a few times to the current numbers for the newer engines. If anybody else wants to chime in, please do. Thanks again.

A lot of activity on here this morning. Does anybody else have thoughts on this. Thanks again.

Not sure about this. If your going from a carb’d engine to one with efi I don’t think your original stator is going to get the job done. Jmo, again not sure. Keep us updated if you go this route as their are a still a lot of those carb’d 500’s out there.

As a mechanical project I admire you taking this on. However, I have to ask how is it economical to repower a 23 year old machine? Are you charging for all the labor on this?

My experience with trying to repower older machines where I can’t get an exact fit engine is that I always seem to end up close but the devil is in the details that changed like wiring, part bolt locations, bracket mounts, etc.

Of course all this can be gotten around with time and fabrication skills. So back to my question, can you charge enough to make this swap pay?

Just curious also is the engine an oem or are there clones out there?

Grouse

Grouse, last question first. It is a genuine Polaris engine.

I agree, I didn’t think it would be worth repowering this old machine, but you know what they say “the customer is always right”.

I will be eating some labor on this but not a bunch. Sometimes you have to do that for good customers.

rkb1041 wrote:

I agree, I didn’t think it would be worth repowering this old machine, but you know what they say “the customer is always right”.

I will be eating some labor on this but not a bunch. Sometimes you have to do that for good customers.

Yeah, I totally get it for a good customer, but it would be nice to know how big of a hole you’re getting into before you buy the engine.

Let us know how it turns out. As I say, mechanically, I admire you for taking this on. Nowadays it’s tough to find a real mechanic for powersports stuff, they’re all a bunch of parts changers that want the computer to tell them what’s bad and a video to show them how to fix it.

Good luck.

Grouse

Well, I’m taking the chance. Engine is on order. I will let everyone know how it works.

UPDATE The engine is in and running great. I had to change the flywheel, stator, and stator plate, two exhaust nuts were different size and the intake oil nipple was bigger on the new engine so had to reuse my old one.
Everything else bolted up perfectly and started right up.

If anybody is in the market for a stator and flywheel for a 2009-2014 500HO I have one for sale.

Thanks again for the comments. Randy

Hey did you happen to buy 1 from fixmytoys? I see they claim they are new original 500 engines. I need to swap 1 in for a 05. Thoughts on process?