Could be air bound cooling system, (esp if it was low, and you didn't bleed it)
could be bad water pump
could be it ended up in the auction because something made it drastically overheat, taking out the head gasket, etc

 

How do I bleed the coolant system and test the water pump?

 

Here's the service manual... https://support.countrycat.com/posts/4140341-2021-wildcat-xx-service-manual page 70 for the cooling system bleeding.

 

thanks

 

I bled the coolant system, but it didn't change anything. I did do a compression test though, and here is what I got: 195psi, 210psi, 210 psi. The compression spec for this motor is 217-261psi.

 

Does that sound like a head gasket to y'all?

 

It could be a number of things, but a head gasket could be likely. I would also pull the valve cover gasket and see if the valve shimming is in spec. If it was too tight you also might have burnt a valve.

 

I believe with only 500 miles on it, its still in breakin mode?

 

Ya, I would still go easy on it because it may not be fully broken in.

 

I believe with only 500 miles on it, its still in breakin mode?

Ya, I would still go easy on it because it may not be fully broken in.

No such thing as "break in mode" or running too hot because its not broken in

 

I don’t think it still breaking in could cause your issues, but what I mean is that I’m not sure it’s fully broken in at 500 miles, so it may not be good to run it too hard yet, not that it is running well anyway.