I just bought this sled on Jan 1, 04. When I tested it out it was mint. Lots of power, started right away, ran great. Took it out the next day and had a lot of fun until I hit deep powder, it smoked through it without a problem and then started to sputter. Pulled over, opened the hood and found it full with snow. The bottom front of the cowling missing, no big deal(fixed it). Scooped out the snow, dried off the top of the engine and emptied the snow from the air filter. Started it up and stayed out of the powder and it worked great. The air filter gets plugged all the time with fine snow paticles and I have to stop and clean it. Is there a better air filter that I can use or has somebody made a modification to the air filter intake that helps keep out the fine snow dust? This is only the first problem that im having. Next is every time that i hit the brakes now the headlight dims alot and now it wont idle anymore when its warmed up. Now it sputters all the way through the rpm range and will only do about 40 mph. It also seems like its burning rich and alot of oil. Now to top it all off, I barely made it home tonight because it seems like the clutch is not working or my belt is shot. Now this all happened after I flooded the engine with snow. The engine compartment was full to the top. What needs to be done to fix my sled and what parts are causing these problems.

Are you sure its running on both cylinders?

i hade the same problem last year with my '89 MX. Engine compartment full of snow. Check your rubber ski boots, they are pobably shot letting alot of snow in. Also, the vents on the hood probably dont have reflectors on them so the snow is going in and just filling up the engine compartment. I bought some window screening and stapled it to the deflectors i had on the inside of the hood, this pervents large amounts of snow from getting in but also lets the engine breath nice clean air.

as for your clutch problem check the belt, if the belt is fine most likely the clutchs are just getting soaked from the snow that is getting in your engine compartment.

and as for smoking alot and only doing 40mph sounds like its only running on one cylinder.

change plugs, add some gas line antifreeze to your gas to remove any water, add some screening to the vents, replace ski boots if they are shot, check oil pump lever and make sure the mark on the lever is matching mark on oil pump and try it again. Let us know how everything works out.

i'd bet on the rubber boots being torn as well, especially the left one if you think theres a cluthc problem...snow is coming in and causing the belt to slip...i picked one of these boots up earlier this year, i beleive it was 14 or so dollars from the doo dealer...
gasline antifreeze sounds like a good idea too, or even change all the gas just to be sure you have no snow (water) in the fuel system..

Make sure you install some pre-filter on top of the OEM filter in the airbox. Also check the seal from the airbox to the hood. The carburetor to airbox boots is another suspect area. The drivability problem your experiencing is the entrances to the air bleeds in the carburetors are icing up causing a rich mixture. Next time it starts to chug, blow smoke and run bad, remove the air box and check the air bleeds. They are the holes drilled at the bottom of the carb intake bell directly in line with the jet needles. You will probably see beads or water or ice forming there. That's caused by snow dust getting into the airbox and melting at the lowest point. Some dealers used to drill small holes at the bottom of the airbox adjacent to the intake boots.

Fixed. I brought it to the car wash and defrosted it with the pressure washer. The ice was almost 4" thick on the pan. Then spent about 1/2 an hour with the blow gun drying everything out. Then I primed the gas once and bingo, it fired up immediatley. Put it back on the trailer and let it idle all the way home. I took it out for a test drive and it ran perfect.
It turns out that both ski boots are missing and the air box has a chunk of ice in it.
Thanks for all the replies, it helped alot.

no problem thats what were here for, as i said though, i'd get those ski-boots replaced or it will happen again. good luck.