Engine swapped utv/sxs discussion.

bdkw1 said:
Judging from this Pic, I'm gonna say, **** no.

Screenshot_20260121_145026_Chrome.jpg


Unless there's an output shaft in there that can be replaced with a longer one. More digging.
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Take all the jetski parts off the back, including the bellhousing piece and I bet there is enough shaft there to do something with
 
willis_racing said:
The problem with jet ski engines isnt so much output adapters as it is figuring out how to make a cooling system function without an infinite amount of cool water as your coolant reservior.

PWC engines generally have the coolant passages exit around the exhaust ports and have no provisions for a water pump, so it's a lot to have to work around.
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That's the easy part. Keeping the CVT adapter from unscrewing is the hard part. You'd have to make a longer stub shaft and weld it to the crank. Then do the final turn to keep everything concentric. At least then a lot of the side loading wouldn't be on the threaded/welded joint.
 
willis_racing said:
The problem with jet ski engines isnt so much output adapters as it is figuring out how to make a cooling system function without an infinite amount of cool water as your coolant reservior.

PWC engines generally have the coolant passages exit around the exhaust ports and have no provisions for a water pump, so it's a lot to have to work around.
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Electric water pump like used in many hotrods?
 
bdkw1 said:
That's the easy part. Keeping the CVT adapter from unscrewing is the hard part. You'd have to make a longer stub shaft and weld it to the crank. Then do the final turn to keep everything concentric. At least then a lot of the side loading wouldn't be on the threaded/welded joint.
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Ah, yeah The force of a CVT engine braking and dragging on the loosening side of the threads isnt something a PWC engine normally has to deal with is it, interesting point.
SHARPMACHINE said:
Electric water pump like used in many hotrods?
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Standalone water pumps and thermostats are easy. I wouldn't want to have to deal with trying to block off and relocate the coolant passages around the exhaust ports and reverse engineer the whole cooling system. The exhaust manifold/header would more than likely turn into a leak-prone mess. PWC engines are awesome because of the form factor and power output, but they have a few other cans of worms I haven't felt the desire to tackle. Modern sled engines are a great choice from my uninitiated opinion. Seems like it would solve the drive issue bdkw brought up and has a competitive form/ power to weight factor.
They're making 4 stroke sleds now right? Are they worth a ****? My only exposure to sleds was a bunch of hillclimb racing pros from Jackson who were obvious 2 stroke purists.
 
willis_racing said:
They're making 4 stroke sleds now right? Are they worth a ****? My only exposure to sleds was a bunch of hillclimb racing pros from Jackson who were obvious 2 stroke purists.
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The Arctic Cat Z1 turbo engine used to be a pretty popular swap before the OEM turbo SxS's were a thing. Now that you can buy a 200hp stock machine that doesn't require any ****ing around it seems like most of the engine swap demand has faded.
 
willis_racing said:
Ah, yeah The force of a CVT engine braking and dragging on the loosening side of the threads isnt something a PWC engine normally has to deal with is it, interesting point.

Standalone water pumps and thermostats are easy. I wouldn't want to have to deal with trying to block off and relocate the coolant passages around the exhaust ports and reverse engineer the whole cooling system. The exhaust manifold/header would more than likely turn into a leak-prone mess. PWC engines are awesome because of the form factor and power output, but they have a few other cans of worms I haven't felt the desire to tackle. Modern sled engines are a great choice from my uninitiated opinion. Seems like it would solve the drive issue bdkw brought up and has a competitive form/ power to weight factor.
They're making 4 stroke sleds now right? Are they worth a ****? My only exposure to sleds was a bunch of hillclimb racing pros from Jackson who were obvious 2 stroke purists.
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Yes, sleds have some great 4 stroke options now. I run a 1200 skidoo as do the rest of my group, all of our sleds have over 10k on them and the only engine issue we have seen is a 14k mile waterpump gear failure (early models had poor plastic gears).
 
This thought has crossed my mind after hearing a few stories of blown up talon engines with cracked cases. Just eyeballing it the engine would be easy to swap bc there's quite a bit of real estare for a rear mounted engine the transmission/t case is where **** would get real tight fast.

The ******ed idea of using a goldwing/valkerie engine mated to a talon sub trans crossed my mind. Would sound amazing anyway.
 
filthy_midget said:
This thought has crossed my mind after hearing a few stories of blown up talon engines with cracked cases. Just eyeballing it the engine would be easy to swap bc there's quite a bit of real estare for a rear mounted engine the transmission/t case is where **** would get real tight fast.

The ******ed idea of using a goldwing/valkerie engine mated to a talon sub trans crossed my mind. Would sound amazing anyway.
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They sound all right, they don't spin high enough to really sound good. I'll see if I still have a vid of my wing powered buggy. It had 6-2-1 headers on it.
 
bdkw1 said:
They sound all right, they don't spin high enough to really sound good. I'll see if I still have a vid of my wing powered buggy. It had 6-2-1 headers on it.
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The cobra 6 shooter drag pipes sound awesome a guy could do a zoomie exhaust lol. Not like id ever do it was just a random autism thought. An I4 to the sub trans would make more sense practically.
 
filthy_midget said:
The cobra 6 shooter drag pipes sound awesome a guy could do a zoomie exhaust lol. Not like id ever do it was just a random autism thought. An I4 to the sub trans would make more sense practically.
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Not really any I4's that would have a good torque curve, you'd have to rev the piss out of it.

2018+ goldwing with the 7 speed DCT would actually be a solid setup, 150sh ft lbs and a pretty decent gear spread. Doesn't rev as high as the p-twin thats in it so honestly the stock diff gearing might work out just fine.

Another cool one would be a Triumph rocket 3. 1st Gen is like 165 ft lbs out of a 2.3 I3, 2nd gen is like 190 ft lbs out of a 2.5 I3.

Those are also both transverse in the motorcycle so in theory they'd be easier to swap into a Talon.
 
Yeah they were a 1.5 4 cylinder Chery motor with a 5 speed and I think a 2 speed transfer case. Interesting little machines, could be tagged as a dune buggy in some places. Remember seeing them for sale in Texas fully street legal. Never were many around being used though.
 
redneckK20s said:
Not really any I4's that would have a good torque curve, you'd have to rev the piss out of it.

2018+ goldwing with the 7 speed DCT would actually be a solid setup, 150sh ft lbs and a pretty decent gear spread. Doesn't rev as high as the p-twin thats in it so honestly the stock diff gearing might work out just fine.

Another cool one would be a Triumph rocket 3. 1st Gen is like 165 ft lbs out of a 2.3 I3, 2nd gen is like 190 ft lbs out of a 2.5 I3.

Those are also both transverse in the motorcycle so in theory they'd be easier to swap into a Talon.
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There is a fair amount of reduction in the engine. Before the trans at the primary gears and on the output. Stock wing diff is like 2.60. I was running 4.88's with 35" tires.
 
SHARPMACHINE said:
Starting to watch for utv's with blown motors. I may be dumb enough to add another project that I have 0 time for to my list????
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Seeing the SxS swapped samurais I had a thought, what if you just used the samurai drivetrain and SxS suspension\axles? I would guess at minimum you would have to build a sort of subframe to hold the suspension\diff and then bolt to the frame, kind of how Subaru rear subframes look.
 
350TacoZilla said:
Seeing the SxS swapped samurais I had a thought, what if you just used the samurai drivetrain and SxS suspension\axles? I would guess at minimum you would have to build a sort of subframe to hold the suspension\diff and then bolt to the frame, kind of how Subaru rear subframes look.
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Biggest issue is packaging everything since nothing has the same length of drivetrain compared to a Sami. A Talon or Pro R would have the right layout but you'd have to get creative with the trans/transfer case placement since neither of them have both. The Pro R's transmission and "transfer case" are one unit. the Talon has the transmission built into the engine so they're both a decent amount shorter.

Kinda falls back to what the dude did above with a FWD car setup. Doable but not necessarily ideal.
 
The Yamaha 1000 is perfect for a straight axle swap. Mid mounted T-case. It's a real shame they stopped making them.
 
Putting an automotive engine in a sxs is a massive step backwards imo. Even 4cyl car engines are huge, heavy and low power compared to sxs engines.
 
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