Snowmobile Summerization

Over the last handful of years I’ve tried different methods of “summerizing” my artic cat 570 2 stroke. No matter what course of action I’ve taken, I’ve always had to do a carb clean come the first snowfall. This year was surprising different and the sled ran great the one time I took it out. This was after just parking it last year and saying screw it. I do always run non oxy gas.

Debating what to do this year. Just leave it parked in the garage and say screw it again? What does everyone here do?

turn off fuel.
Run till it starts bogging then begin to use the choke and throttle to keep her alive till she quits and put her to sleep.

or simply turn off fuel and drain the carbs via the bowl drain screw.

All I’ve ever done with fuel is run a fuel stabilizer, non-oxy, fog the cylinders and call it good.

I’ve never had carb issues at any time during riding.

No on/off valve on the fuel line for me to switch off.

Just run non oxy gas and keep seafoam in the tank and it will run like a top.

If its a carbed machine I would make sure the carbs are dry for storage.
With EFI I have many years luck just stabilizing the fuel, running it for a bit to make sure that flows through the whole system, then just shutting off. After that I fog each cylinder through the spark plug holes and turn it over several times to distribute the oil. I’ve done this 9 years on my oldest EFI sled and it still runs like new.

Dry carbs is a bad idea because the seals dry out. I NEVER ever in my 40 plus years of riding sleds A LOT drained the carbs fully of gas.

I don’t own a sled anymore, but my strategy was to always run non-oxy fuel, put stabil in the fuel on the last tank I ran for the season to get it through the system…and fire it up next season. I tried to make it a point to run the machine once early fall on a cool day so I had no surprises once the snow started flying.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Dry carbs is a bad idea because the seals dry out. I NEVER ever in my 40 plus years of riding sleds A LOT drained the carbs fully of gas.

Me either. Run good gas with stabilizer and call it good

Use non oxy gas and put seafoam or stabil in the fuel and call it good. Draining the carbs will just dry them out and cause other issues.
The best thing you can do it fire it up occasionally to flow some fuel through everything.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Dry carbs is a bad idea because the seals dry out. I NEVER ever in my 40 plus years of riding sleds A LOT drained the carbs fully of gas.

Guess I have been lucky doing it on my carbed sleds for 25 years and every carbed engine I have ever owned over 35 years. I think modern seals drying out is part of an old myth. Cant prove it but we all have our reasons for doing things.

Its definitely not a myth. Seen it happen lots of times and every time it was due to dry carbs. YES, you have been extremely lucky. Ask any small engine guy and they would advise against running them dry for this very reason.

I love this subject everyone has their way of doing it and they’ve never had an issue for XX years. Except for whoever starts the post and they’ve tried everyone else’s way and had issues every year

I have never had a carb related issue on one of my machines in all the years I have ridden. My dad tinkers on things all the time from neighbors and every single one of them are either bad gas or running them dry. He was even given a snowmobile because they couldnt figure it out and it took him a good carb cleaning and replace all the seals to fix the problem. Once again, run dry of gas.

One BIG thing for everyone to consider this year is how long the gas has been in the tank. If you’re like me and drove your sled a whopping 5 miles or less on gas that was stored all last summer, it’s probably best to siphon the old gas out and use it in your vehicle and put in fresh Non-oxy and fuel stabilizer.

Good to read the advice here, I was just thinking it’s time to put the machine back in cold storage after racking up a massive 0.0 miles of riding this “winter”.

Additional question:

The last time I filled up with gas was March 2023, so the gas in my tank is over a year old already. Yes, it’s non-ox and has Stabil, however… I’m worried about leaving gas (non ox or not) in a machine when it’s a year old and by the time I use it next season (let’s hope), it’ll be 18 months old or more.

I have a hand pump, so I can pump most of it out easily enough. Are you guys mostly doing that as well?

I know I won’t get ALL of it out, but I can get a vast majority of it. Then my plan is a gallon or so of fresh non-ox with Stabil and run the machine again.

Thoughts?

crossin_eyes wrote:

One BIG thing for everyone to consider this year is how long the gas has been in the tank.

Bingo

Okay, everybody’s thinking the same thing about the age of fuel because I posted right after Crossin Eyes comment.

Pretty much everybody pumping the tanks dry then? Then add some fresh non-ox/Stabil and run it to get it up into the EFI or carbs?

Grouse, I remove the gas out of my tanks and use it in other small engines. Don’t see a reason to let the gas sit in a tank and potentially go bad. As for summerizing, I run it dry but before I do, run deep creep which lubricates the system including carbs. Everyone has a different opinions. I’ve had small engine mechanics tell me carbs should be cleaned every year.

I never run tanks dry. Usually at least half full. I store my boat with a full tank and 2 bottles of seafoam. Stabil doesnt last as long as Seafoam so I prefer to use that. Plus its a petroleum product so it really helps and you really cannot use too much of it.

I should say I’m talking snowmobiles, boat has some gas in it and do what you said musky.

weedis wrote:

I should say I’m talking snowmobiles, boat has some gas in it and do what you said musky.

Agreed my boat motor is a 4 stroke so they are much more tolerant than a 2 stroke.

I mentioned this in the ATV forum. Im pumping mine as empty as I can then add a few gallons of good fresh gas with Seafoam. Run it for a bit and call it a day. Except Ill be running the carbed snowblowers dry…
I must do this to two sleds and two snowblowers.

suzuki wrote:

I mentioned this in the ATV forum. Im pumping mine as empty as I can then add a few gallons of good fresh gas with Seafoam. Run it for a bit and call it a day.
I must do this to two sleds and two snowblowers.

Thats a good practice.

I store everything with stabilized old gas and then when it comes out of storage I syphon it dry as possible and refill with fresh. I’ll dump the old gas in my truck.

My sled sat for 3- 4 years untouched. Yep carb issues. Had them redone and now I start and run it 20-30 minutes at least every month or sooner and no issues since. It a 95.

Odd it was stored in my mom’s shed 5 miles away and didn’t really do anything to it. Now it’s at the cabin 31/2 hours away and always run it

So who’s snow-checking an awesome new 2025 for next winter?

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

So who’s snow-checking an awesome new 2025 for next winter?

Haha! A buddy ordered a new 24 and I asked him how many miles he had on it and he said 20 feet!

kid got a new one in Nov. has less than 1 mile on it…

Nodakk wrote:

Over the last handful of years I’ve tried different methods of “summerizing” my artic cat 570 2 stroke.

I had the same motor (had one 2010 T570 for me and an F570 for the FW) for 10 years and thru the season I used regular 97 and then in the last couple runs of the year I would run non-oxy with an ounce of seafoam per gallon in the sled. Greased all the zert’s good and lubed whatever else I could (usually duct taped the exhaust port closed also to try and keep mice out). Pulled the belt off and
put in storage in April and pulled it out in November, and it always started right up. I had two Polaris Trail’s we bought new in 1995 that we ran until we got the AC’s in 2011, and followed the same program. Never had an issue with carbs for fall start-up.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Its definitely not a myth. Seen it happen lots of times and every time it was due to dry carbs. YES, you have been extremely lucky. Ask any small engine guy and they would advise against running them dry for this very reason.

I do think it has a lot to do with the material of the seal, is it straight up rubber from 1994(random guess), or perhaps something more commonly used today, Buna or Viton.

Most stabilizers will keep gas “fresh” for 18 months. I also top my tank off before storage, less surface area of the tank to condensate.

I also never really like running a two stroke out of gas, even at idle. Typically your oil injection pump is driven by the pulses of the crank pressure, diminish those and you do run a small risk of running lean on oil. Not a huge concern at idle, but just something I prefer not to do. If you’re talking a premix, then I wouldn’t be as concerned.