VK Pro stopped running with no warning

[vk540]

While grooming yesterday with my 2011 VK PRO, stopped for 10 minutes to shovel a water hole, left the hood closed and motor off. Went back to restart the sled, it started but cranked more than normal, after going about 100 feet it hesitated and stopped, it would sit there and idle, but as soon as i touched the throttle it would start to stumble and die, if you gave it alot of throttle it would quit, after doing this it failed to restart. i let it sit for 15 minutes and would not start, waited 15 minutes, tryed again, would not start, after about 45 minutes it started fine, i unhooked the drag and ran it up to 50 mph, it went fine, re hooked the drag and all was fine, groomed the rest of the day. I have the auxillary fan which was on, the outside temp was close to 40 degrees, no heat light every came on, and no code ever flashed, the heat light does work as it came on 2 days prior when not using the fan on the auxillary radiator in very hard snow conditions. Can any one plese help what it might be , or if this has happened to anyone else?? I was working the machine extremely hard at low speeds,3-5 mph, grooming while breaking thru a crust type snow, cooling on the heat exchangers was very minimal. Thank you

 

[maim]

sounds like it was heat soaked to me.

 

[VKbcnorth]

Check to see if you had the carbureter heat turned off in such warm conditions. The manual gives instructions.

 

[vk540]

I checked and the carb heaters were turned off. Is it possible that the fuel in the carbs was expanding from all the heat causing a flooding like symptom in the motor, it would idle fine, but as soon as i touched the throttle it would start to die and stumble, and would take about 10-15 seconds to clean its self out and idle on all 3 cylinders....Thanks

 

[VKbcnorth]

Check to see if the removable snow panels are removed from the nose of the machine. In warm weather, they will block air flow. The manual mentions them. I seem to remember that the manual recommends a minimum speed in low gear and it's probably more than 3 mph.

 

[vk540]

All the removable panels have benn taken off when i took posession of the sled last fall, knowing it would need all the air it could get. Maybe it would be better to let the machine idle with both fans running for about 5 minutes before shutting it off when it is hot?? this might help circulate cooler water, hence cooling the motor.

 

[air19]

Hey VK540,

That is an extreme test for any snowmobile - grooming with the knives down in 40 degrees. I would never do that to my VK Pro.

As a general rule of thumb - when it's above freezing I'm not grooming. You might have been able to tear up the top surface, but it will probably turn back to hardpack the next time the temps drop. So you will be back at it tomorrow. And what type of surface were you creating at the back end. The few times I've groomed above freezing I've just created a mess behind me.

Now I just wait until temps get back below freezing (sometimes that means nighttime or better yet early morning grooming).

 

[vk540]

I realize it was a hard test of the Pro, the temps were down less than 20 degrees when we left that morning, by lunch time when the problem occured it was probably 36-38 degrees. The trail being groomed was one that only gets hit a couple of times a year, the snow was still frozen even though the temps were above freezing, and there was plenty of snow in the drag. My thought is something got effected by this test, just unsure if it was carb or electrical related?? Since this occured i've been out several times and have not had any issues.

 

[Jim Bob21]

While grooming yesterday with my 2011 VK PRO, stopped for 10 minutes to shovel a water hole, left the hood closed and motor off. Went back to restart the sled, it started but cranked more than normal, after going about 100 feet it hesitated and stopped, it would sit there and idle, but as soon as i touched the throttle it would start to stumble and die, if you gave it alot of throttle it would quit, after doing this it failed to restart. i let it sit for 15 minutes and would not start, waited 15 minutes, tryed again, would not start, after about 45 minutes it started fine, i unhooked the drag and ran it up to 50 mph, it went fine, re hooked the drag and all was fine, groomed the rest of the day. I have the auxillary fan which was on, the outside temp was close to 40 degrees, no heat light every came on, and no code ever flashed, the heat light does work as it came on 2 days prior when not using the fan on the auxillary radiator in very hard snow conditions. Can any one plese help what it might be , or if this has happened to anyone else?? I was working the machine extremely hard at low speeds,3-5 mph, grooming while breaking thru a crust type snow, cooling on the heat exchangers was very minimal. Thank you

I'm throwing this in because I had the exact same problem the other day with my Vk. It was not working hard and running perfectly. I stopped for 10 min...and it did exactly what you described... I believe the electric carb heater relay or temp sensor was keeping heaters on when not needed. Caused fuel to get extremely hot and to evaporate from carbs and or vapour lock. I was driving g slow so fuel consumption would have been very low. Once engine died..considerable cranking required to refill carbs. Started on one cylinder then limped until 2nd kicked in..then 3rd. Then machine was fine. Took that cranking to refill carbs. I am convinced my heated were stuck on.