Whats the best year SKidoo Citation motor?

[skidoodaddy]

hi i have heard that the skidoo company in certain years made a single cylinder motor which was better than other years ,,,I think it was in the citation models and tundra i think...Something about a plastic bearing race cage ,,,If anyone here no about what im talking about please post it..

thanks

[olyman]

I once had an 81 citation 4500 that had a twin 377 motor (back in about '92). It had those beloved plastic bearing cages that held the rollers. Well that motor sucked a seal... overheated everything... bearings totally fell apart and loosened up the crank, "ovalled" the cylinders + smashed the skirts off the bottoms of both pistons & scattered that crap ALL over. Needless to say that only the tin fan cover on the outside of the engine was all that was good after that.

That being said, I had a buddy running the exact same sled at the time and he ran it for years and years without ANY failure. I wouldn't be surprised if it still ran good.

So... as for those bearings - I prefer to never see one again in my life, but others have never had issue. Its a bit of a crap chute. Singles / Twins both used them. But if you can always pick up one of the sleds, and were concerned at all, replace the bearings yourself. Buy some good NTN or SKF Engine class bearings and do it at home. I did that with a 70 tnt engine and it works great.

[BLACKCAT]

Hey i have seen the SKF bearings at store before ..
I might try rebuilding a 250 elan with them..
I wonder if there really is that much of a difference between
original Rotax stock and the SKF?