[Jmartincic]

Two weekends ago I was headed up my buddies driveway to hit the trails. All of a sudden my wolverine just shut off and stopped dead. Couldn't even get it to get into neutral. Over the last few days been going over every obvious thing that I thought that could have went wrong.
I then pulled the spark plug and it was melted. I have read many threads on here and seems like everyone is having over heating issues with the wolverine I am also having these problems. Just curious to know if anyone else has had this happened?

 

[chief]

dang, naw haven't had this happen. and not sure what would cause that. never hard of a spark plug melting in any motor. but i haven't seen everything either...

 

[Wi_Rider]

That's crazy! Makes me think about pulling mine to see what it looks like

 

[Deeyoh]

Pulled mine at 500 miles and it looked perfect. Just put it back in. That looks like some bad detonation from bad gas. What you running in it 50 octane fuel?
Only 1 here has overheated and that was a clogged radiator.. the exhaust does glow because of a lean idle from the factory for emission purposes.

 

[Jmartincic]

Yah I am a little ticked off this happened. i have fond nothing anywhere to why this could have happened. It is still under warrenty goes in next week. Any updates I get I will post. may just have been a bad plug but not taking the chance.

 

[Jmartincic]

Pulled mine at 500 miles and it looked perfect. Just put it back in. That looks like some bad detonation from bad gas. What you running in it 50 octane fuel?
Only 1 here has overheated and that was a clogged radiator.. the exhaust does glow because of a lean idle from the factory for emission purposes.

I been running 93 octane in it since I bought it.

 

[All out]

I have also been running 93 octane since the day i got it spark plug was pulled approximately 500 miles dealer said it was great

 

[All out]

I personally have never had an overheating issue with mine but I clean my radiator extensively at the end of every ride

 

[Deeyoh]

Did you grab some fuel out of can that's been sitting for a few years? It could happen. Other than that, no idea at all. Just that dimple in the top looks like something hit it. See that crater and little rim it looks just like when I shoot a very soft iron plate with a 22. Like bad detonation.

How many miles and hours on the machine? Ride in really dusty conditions a lot? Could be fuel filter plugging not letting enough fuel in.

 

[VBflywire]

Not a mechanic here, but I had my Grizzly 700 out in Colorado and I had a similar experience. Going down the trail it sputtered and quit. I had a new plug in so didn't think it was a problem. Checked what I could 8 miles from camp and minimal tools. Then had to choke down a Can Am pulling me back. After I got home I checked the spark plug it looked fried. Not quite like yours, but defiantly melted. I replaced it. No luck. Researched a little more and found my crank position sensor had failed on a stator harness I just put in last year. I have no idea if the fried plug was caused by the failed sensor, but it happen at what seems the same time.

 

[Jmartincic]

Did you grab some fuel out of can that's been sitting for a few years? It could happen. Other than that, no idea at all. Just that dimple in the top looks like something hit it. See that crater and little rim it looks just like when I shoot a very soft iron plate with a 22. Like bad detonation.

How many miles and hours on the machine? Ride in really dusty conditions a lot? Could be fuel filter plugging not letting enough fuel in.

It is a brand new machine only has 11 hours on it less than 300 miles if even that much. Yah dusty conditions and hard pack clay. The gas was fresh i know that for sure.

 

[Flach24]

Just by looking at the pictures, there not that good so its hard to tell, but I can't believe its melted, i've never seen that in all my life of working on atv's. If it melted then I would assume other things got very very hot and probably did some damage.

 

[Wi_Rider]

What are the trails like where you ride? I noticed on mine when I was running it pretty hard, around 40 or a little over, in mostly sand trails the temps would stay around 210 or a little above and fan ran all the time. But even then I can't see it getting hot enough to melt the plug. Have to noticed the fan running like non-stop? I would think you would get a high temp light way before you would get hot enough to melt a plug

 

[Deeyoh]

Well, definitely take it to the dealer. They need to pull the head. Could have been a bad sparkplug but I've never seen a plug that bad. Ones I've seen with only a burnt electrode had the piston melting. The nickel on the sparkplug doesn't melt until 2600 degrees.. The aluminum piston melts at only 1250.

 

[Jmartincic]

What are the trails like where you ride? I noticed on mine when I was running it pretty hard, around 40 or a little over, in mostly sand trails the temps would stay around 210 or a little above and fan ran all the time. But even then I can't see it getting hot enough to melt the plug. Have to noticed the fan running like non-stop? I would think you would get a high temp light way before you would get hot enough to melt a plug

Most of the trails I ride are muddy from time to time mostly hard pack clay or dsty on summer days. Yes the fan runs almost constantly on hotter days, but the temp light neve came on once since I have purchased it.

 

[Deeyoh]

Oh, I"m so old school. Sorry, they can just bore scope it to see if the piston is damaged. You can even get a borescope at Walmart now days. LOL

 

[Wi_Rider]

I was told that the temp light would come on at 251 F so apparently it never got that hot where the temp sensor is on the the head. Does the light come on for a second when you start the machine? Is it full of coolant? Maybe temp light isn't working and pushed some coolant out? Either way like others have said take it to the dealer you would think if it got hot enough to melt the plug I'd be worried about the piston and rings.

 

[BigBuck]

Could be caused by the lean fuel / air ratio of the Wolverine. Something to watch out for.

 

[Jmartincic]

Yah that is the only thing i am worried abut is the possability that the piston and rings got mesed up. As far as the lean fuel / air ratio hunterworks.com has a module that plugs into the ignition that i beleive would help fix that ratio. I have ordered countless parts from this website in the past for my rhino great website and great service. I was thinking of purchasing that to give it a shot. Polaris RZR XP 900, Polaris Ranger 800 - Wolverine PCV w/ignition

 

[Wi_Rider]

Yah that is the only thing i am worried abut is the possability that the piston and rings got mesed up. As far as the lean fuel / air ratio hunterworks.com has a module that plugs into the ignition that i beleive would help fix that ratio. I have ordered countless parts from this website in the past for my rhino great website and great service. I was thinking of purchasing that to give it a shot. Polaris RZR XP 900, Polaris Ranger 800 - Wolverine PCV w/ignition

That sounds like a great idea and works well from what I've read so far, actually am looking at something like that in the future. Maybe it's just me but I see no reason that a guy should have to do that to keep his new machine from burning up, unless it's had a bunch of work done to it. Take it to the dealer and see what they say. With the EFI they might be able to plug it in and get a reading as to when it happened and under what conditions.