Any side effects from tipping sled over?

[troverman]

Had a bad experience yesterday snowmobiling in northern NH. Drove 3.5 hours to get there, backed off my trailer too fast while trying to turn and under throttle (stupid mistake, I know...but I'm used to a Polaris XC which sits a lot lower and is more forgiving), and managed to dump the thing on its side in an icy parking lot. The engine stayed running for 15 seconds or so till I could collect myself, then it shut off. I set the sled back upright, and there is no damage to any of the plastics, or anything at all. Very low speed dump. Fired it up, the Check Engine and Low Oil lights are on, so I shut it down. Start it again, no Engine icon, just low oil. Seemed to be running OK, I figured from the tip over, the oil in the reservoir got all unsettled, and it would correct itself. I went about 3/4 mile, and the light was still on. So I shut it down, pulled the panels off, and checked the oil. There was oil in the tank, but upon further inspection, I noticed a large amount of oil steadily pouring out from the belly pan. I rode it back, put in on the trailer, then decided to take it to the local independent Yamaha dealer. They told me the drain plug and oil filter were fine, oil was leaking from somewhere above, he didn't know. He suspected an oil cooler line or the cooler itself blew (does this sled even have an oil cooler?). I started to trailer home, then stopped in a parking lot and pulled the airbox. Full of oil, some oil in the throttle bodies, most of the filter soaked, the screen soaked, oil pooled all in the bottom of the air box, and leaking through the drain hole and down to the belly pan (hence the visible leak). So I cleaned everything with paper towels as best I could (-10F and heavy winds, not fun) and added oil which I had with me in the truck. No leaks, no low oil light, running fine, rode over 100 miles. I will clean it again more thoroughly, but should I expect any side effects in the future from this?

 

[Paul]

Clean the air box and run it. Ain't no big deal.

 

[smokingcrater]

+1

All the oil was pumped into your air box... The other thing to remember, with a dry sump engine, you don't want to ignore the low oil light! It means bad things are very close to happening, and to immediately figure out why.

 

[troverman]

+1

All the oil was pumped into your air box... The other thing to remember, with a dry sump engine, you don't want to ignore the low oil light! It means bad things are very close to happening, and to immediately figure out why.

Thanks, sounds like no harm done, just needs a thorough cleaning. These things shut down with no oil pressure, so "low oil" doesn't mean danger for engine immediately, it just means there needs to be an explanation why oil is low, such as a serious leak which warrants immediate attention. You really don't want to ignore the low oil light on any engine, unless there is a good explanation.