Hey Kawi,
Knowing what you know now, what is the best route to help cut down on cvt dust and heat on a stock zforce500 setup? I took your advice and boxed in my air intake between the seats and that has helped tremendously on the air intake side, so no snorkel needed imo there. As you know I just changed my belt and hope to prolong life. Is there a simple fan/temp gauge setup that you would recommend that doesn't require massive fabbing? Thanks man!
Nothing that would require "no" fabrication unfortunately. That entire back half of the machine is a dust-zone and any intake placed within it is subject to large amounts of dust..if it exists in the terrain you ride in. For most people the bladed on the primary move enough air to keep it below 200 degrees F..most of the time but the volume is far more then people think..so that also means far more materials are also pumped through..and not all get ejected. Some stay and get ground-up on CVT parts like roller/slide tracks and helix ramps,bushings and of course belts and sheaves. All this shortens all these part's life. To filter this as I have means a filter must stop all this material from entering but that also means it builds-up on that filter and must get cleaned or cleared often. Even as high as I had my intake stacks there were times when the dust was so bad..it only took 10 miles of forest road-running before the temps started increasing because of this air restriction...Oh, the TrailTech CVT temp gauge is an easy way to keep tabs on that. The inline fan I installed was to be just a helper or boost to help get me back to camp when the filter started plugging up. It has helped but if I was at a start of a ride it still meant I needed to stop and open that can and bang-out that filter...yeah..I was "that" guy a few times...the one that had to stop the ride because he needed to so something no one else did. So..I started the final phase of my intake system and plumbed it in preparation for the S&B particle separator. For mow I topped it with the cheaper Donaldson pre-filter/particle separator but even though it only cut about 50-60% of the total dust from making it to the filters, it has shown me that this is the way to go...as in stop the dust from entering in the first place. The 400-dollars the S&B will cost me looks like it will solve my woos....and if it does what they say, I may be able to go weeks without having to clear that filter.
So I guess in short, the thing we need to do is to stop the bulk of the abrasive material intake without ever causing a restriction in airflow. A filter will always do..both of those things and even though the CVT intake is in the cab and the best place for it, in some situation it will still get too much of that dust and dirt in it...like mine did...and started this long and expensive journey. All the money I spent...and will spend on mine would have bought enough parts to rebuild my clutches and replaced the belt many times.
There are times when I ask myself why I didn't just put the temp gauge on it and stick a little better filter pad in the OE intake and just clean it when necessary....and just replace the warn parts when they need it. Maybe..just maybe..this is rout to go for some people.

Just my 2-cents.