What do snowmobiles run on

A spring in the secondary clutch operates the cams wedges , which are sensitive to torque. The process continues as the snowmobile accelerates. Once it reaches its top speed, the primary clutch closes, moving the belt into a higher "gear. Unlike a manual or automatic transmission , this system is stepless and can smoothly go back and forth between an infinite number of "gears" depending on the speed and the amount of power needed.

Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. That compression ratio is recorded and the engine is drained of the test fuel and pure iso-octane is supplied. The engine is re-started and normal heptane is added to the iso-octane until the engine begins to knock with the same intensity and at the same compression ratio as did the sample fuel.

If the knock intensity is equal at a 90 percent iso-octane, 10 percent normal heptane mixture, for example, the fuel would be assigned an octane rating of MON is determined by using the same reference fuels and test apparatus but the test procedure differs from the research method; the fuel mixture is preheated, higher engine speeds are used and ignition timing is varied.

Gasoline went through changes in the early s when new emissions standards were instituted for automobiles and the need for the use of catalytic converters in the exhaust systems emerged. The tetraethyl lead that had been used to boost the octane rating of gasoline would foul the converters. As a result, the lead additive was phased out, the octane rating of gasoline dropped and the search was on to find new additives to boost the octane of gasoline without having to use high levels of expensive gasolines such as iso-octane.

Prior to the phase-out of tetraethyl lead, you could find honest-to-goodness octane, premium gasoline at almost any station in the country. People had been bombarded with advertising that made them believe higher-octane gasoline made their engines perform better. Northern Minnesota had stations that only sold octane premium gasoline. As the U. Since then, manufacturers have calibrated their engines to run on this fuel.

All engines are designed to run on one specific grade of fuel, but modern technology has removed some of the risk of engine damage that poor quality fuel presents for some snowmobiles.

That said, many high-performance snowmobiles specify the use of octane non-oxygenated fuel for best performance. Generally, the use of oxygenated fuel is not a problem, but leaving this fuel in the machine for more than 30 days can create a problem. Make it a practice to try to only use the fuel specified on the fuel cap of the machine. Occasional use of the automotive octane fuel is not going to cause damage but will reduce performance.

As a rule, try to use the higher-octane fuel and non-oxygenated non-ethanol to meet the requirements on the fuel cap. Since the fuel tank is located under the seat of the snowmobile you do not want to be sitting on the sled or applying any pressure to the seat while adding fuel. This will prevent pushing fuel out of the tank, and from getting fuel on you or a passenger! Sticking to the manufacturer recommendation is the right thing to do. Regular knocking can lead to serious damage to the engine.

Using higher octane gasoline will not help clean your engine. Unless your owners manual suggest using it. I have a friend who lost two pistons in both dirtbike and snowmobile. If you are not an avid fan of horsepower I would try to skip the ethanol if possible. Both the engine and fuel system could get affected by ethanol use.

Always consult your owner manual to see what they recommend. If they do mention about ethanol free gasoline you should probably find a pump without ethanol in order to be safe.

While ethanol reduces economy among other arguments it does actually increase HP. Also, they suggest to burn it quickly otherwise it will begin to separate from the gas. If you want to use ethanol, I suggest burning that fuel in a week, maximum two. And please: do not store your snowmobile with ethanol fuel in! Your snowmobile engine will get damaged and you will run into serious problems when trying to start in after a while.

You can observe that after a few days it will begin to separate. There are some studies that prove ethanol can be bad for engines. Open fuel systems tend to be more sensitive to ethanol usage. The main use of additives is to compensate for the ethanol.

Take a look at this one on Amazon. It has almost 5 perfect stars and with so many reviews it must be good for something. The advantages they present:. As explained before, I would look for owners manual to see the recommended version and use that one. Many people think that if they use 92 or 93 gasoline that will give them a boost in performance. I remember that Snow-Tech magazine published an article a few years ago saying that if your snowmobile was designed for 87 gasoline you can check in the owners manual it will develop more power using than using the 92 or higher octane gasoline.