Hunt's other time and money pit

Hunt · Feb 24, 2011

I know its a UTV but it is still 4 wheel drive. I haven't been on the board much lately because this thing seem to have completely consumed me.

I blew up my Weller motor while pre running the course at KOH a few weeks ago. I am changing directions again with the car and now that BITD, KOH and several other race series have opened up the rules to motor swaps.

I am going to put the Rotax motor out of the new Can-am Commander in the Rhino. I'll liven it up a bit. I can't supercharge this one so ported and polished heads, 4.5mm over sized valves, big bore kit, STM clutch and a few other hot rod parts are in the works.

Here are some pics.

Edit: I guess Greg cut me off. I can't upload pics...
Edit 2: I don't know. It doesn't seem to like some of my pictures although they have all been taken with the same camera.

Greg · Feb 24, 2011

Sounds badass, the Rotax motor should really wake that thing up! I'd love to see pics.

What's happening when you try to upload your pics? I haven't made any changes to your account and photo uploads are unlimited, so there is no reason you shouldn't be able to post images.

Hunt · Feb 25, 2011

New motor plans are in the works.

I found a Can-am 800 motor core out of an '07 Renegade quad. It had about 500 miles on it and spun a rod bearing. It's a common problem if they ingest some water or dirt. I got it cheap and it's an easy fix.

Next I found the tranny out of an '07 650 Outlander quad. The 650 has a lower high gear and the same low gear as the 800 and the new 1000. The lower high gear is only about 3-5 mph slower in the flat out speeds but should give me a little better pull out the hole in the tight tree racing and KOH style crawling.

Now its time to turn it all up a little. The stock Rhino motor is 23 hp. My Weller race motor was 54 hp. I am shooting for 95-100 with the Rotax.

This is how I am getting it done.
STM clutches, primary and secondary
Tune Monster ECM with fuel, spark, fan, and O2 sensor controls
Mr. RPM big bore kit
Ported and polished heads
4.5 mm oversized valves
Race intake
Gen 2 cams
51 mm throttle body
300m throw shaft
13:1 Flat top pistons
oil filter adapter
double valve springs
Titanium retainers

Of course the motor and dash harnesses will have to be reworked, new motor mounts and the list goes on and on. But thats what we all love to do.

More to follow...

Hunt · Feb 27, 2011

We made Monday's highlight reel from this years KOH.

[youtube]dRSuQSnwsNI[/youtube]

0:36-0:50 Is all us. My impact mount even made it in there.

krany · Feb 28, 2011

whats with the blacked out truck at 1:43?

Hunt · Feb 28, 2011

Maybe it has a tight cover on it? Good eye. I have no idea. Charlene Bower is a writer for UTV weekly. You could ask her, she is the that did the video.

Edit: I sent Charlene a PM on one of the other boards asking her about it. I'll let you know what she says. It's got me baffled as well.

jdub · Feb 28, 2011

I love the "cram-packed" comment at the first! I was watching tv and someone said, "white elephant in the room"

Good stuff.

Hunt · Mar 11, 2011

My good deal on a used motor is fast turning into a PITA.

Turns out that the motor has 2 spun rod bearings so the crank will need to be machined(the easy and cheap part). The one rod is so wallowed out that it is completely unusable. The other would need extensive machine work to bring it back within spec.

I decided to just get a new set of steel Gorilla rods. They are a touch lighter and a much stronger H-bean design.

Also the timing chains are shot and will need to be replaced. Clearly the motor had a lot more than 500 hours and had been ridden hard with the spun bearings.

The heads are off getting 2mm over exhaust and 4.5mm over intakes valves and seats. Then off to the port and polish shop.

It will start coming together soon.

Hunt · Mar 16, 2011

Parts are starting to trickle in for the motor swap.

Brian form Rotax Your Rhino hooked me up on a bunch of the steel parts to make the swap easier. All the parts came in very well wrapped and tightly packaged. I hate to mess of the shiny paint but I think I am going to have to trim some weight out of this thing.

For only having 2 cylinders this has more wiring than most LS swaps I've been involved with. I have to cut up the factory Renegade harness and install the Tune Monster stand alone computer. The factory Can-Am computers are not crackable or tune-able without a piggyback or stand alone. The Tune Monster will allow me full access to spark curves, fuel curves, O2 readings and all the other variables that make a fuel injected motor work.

I will be reusing the stock Can-Am dash so I have to keep the stock computer to run that portion. The fuel pump is still under consideration. I am leaning toward finding an equivalent (volume and pressure) pump to mount on the frame rail. I hate in tank pumps.

Hunt · Mar 16, 2011

More pictures:

Hunt · Mar 17, 2011

More parts today. I came home to find a small box on the front step. I could not think of what it might be. As soon as I read the label it came to me. About 3 weeks ago I ordered a shop manual from Can-am. It finally came in. I had completely forgotten about it.

After thumbing through it I am very excited. It is exactly what I wanted. It is a very well organized and thorough manual. It even has large pullout 3-line diagrams of the entire electrical. I bought the book for exactly that. It is going to make chopping up the factory harness a breeze. The 3-line has colors, sizes, locations for every think.

I am stoked this is starting to come together!

Hunt · Mar 20, 2011

I pulled out the old single cylinder Rhino motor today. The floor pan has been cut out and smoothed in preparation for the new motor plate. The plate is going to need some additional mod to fit my car. The inner rear suspension seat mounts are in the way as is one floor bar. My car is completely different than a stock Rhino so these kind of things where expected.

I shaved about 6 pounds out of the plate with holes and then dimpled most of them. It had some holes in it already so coming up with some sort of pattern that worked with the existing one was tricky. It works, no one will ever really see it anyway. I was after weight reductions most of all.

The harness is outrageous. It took several hours to go through and just label each connector. Wiring and exhaust are going to be the two biggest headaches.

muleskinner · Mar 20, 2011

Nice job, it looks like a fun project.

Greg · Mar 20, 2011

muleskinner said:
Nice job, it looks like a fun project.

x2, nice work so far! I'm excited to see that thing tearing it up with the Rotax engine!

Wasatch Quad · Mar 21, 2011

Isn't Muzzy making an exhaust for that conversion?

Hunt · Mar 22, 2011

Wasatch Quad said:
Isn't Muzzy making an exhaust for that conversion?

They do but it is almost $900. The placement of my fuel cell and the cage design will not allow that exact exhaust system to drop right in my Rhino. My fuel cell is exactly where the mufflers would go. It keeps the weight as low as possible.

My current mufflers are two big FMFs that are attached to the rear fire wall right behind the driver and passenger seats at about a 45 degree angle.

I called Kirk at Muzzy and asked if they would sell me just the two head pipes and collector pieces. At first it was a straight up "No it only comes in kit form." But he asked his boss and he came back with a yes. At first I hesitated because the price was still a little high. Then he called back offering 20% off. I was surprised. Maybe they had a kit damaged in shipping and the head pipes are still good. I went for it. We will see.

Buy the time I designed and cut flanges, bought the various stainless steel mandrel bends, bought the collectors and my time putting something together I think I am going to be money ahead. I will still need to buy a few bends but I may be ably to cut up some of my old system to finish it out. The head pipes are equal length and my Muzzy parts will stop high at the back of the motor. Then I will have to plumb it to the mufflers.

They are a pretty crazy design but look affective. I don't think I would have come up with the design layout anything close to their head pipes.

Wasatch Quad · Mar 22, 2011

$900

Holy cow. Looking forward to seeing everything mounted up.

Hunt · Apr 27, 2011

Orders went out today for parts:
2- Walbro 255 pumps
2- Metric thread to #6-AN Conversion kits
2- Walbro in-tank pickups
1- Walbro in-tank pickup with bleed hole
3- #6 shut off valves
1- Pre pump filter
1- Post pump filter
1- Regulator
1- Oil pressure gauge
1- Water temp gauge
1- New Fullbore dash
1- Header wrap kit
1- K&N air filter
1- K&N air filter wrap

Engine should be done at the machine shop at the end of the week. I am going to wait on ordered line and fittings unit I know better the actual routing

Hopfully this little project will start coming together soon.

Hunt · May 2, 2011

Parts are starting to trickle in. My motor is appearently still a few weeks out.

I did find some pictures of the car just after I got back form KOH. Not much to look at but it gives you an idea of the dust out there.

Hunt's other time and money pit

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