1st 16 turbo / Engine Failure

[InRBigness]

I picked up 2 new 2016's in September, a 141Le and an STX137, dealer told me in no uncertain terms DO NOT turbo them, if i did they would not last and Yamaha Canada would not warranty them if i did.
I am very glad I did not turbo them.
To the OP,You may be SOL

Your dealer clearly has a bias. Until this year there have been countless turbocharged vipers with no issues at all. I also received the letter asking me to purchase the MPI turbo from Yamaha for $2400. I had already purchased it for the spring price of 3k. When I picked it up on the 15th of December they rebated me the 600 difference.

I think they would have a lot of trouble telling me it was not to be installed on my sled and there was no warranty as they offered it to me as a benefit of spring purchase, encouraged me to make sure I had one by offering me a discounted price before October 1st I think.

Time will tell but until then: Ride on!

 

[16XTXLE]

no bias, just looking out for me, they were notified about the issue in Sept/Oct about the 16 issues by rep.
There were little to no issues with 15 and older sleds they installed turbos on, so I agree with you there.
He was also at service school in November were the problems were discussed in length.
I also received the offer for the turbo in the mail, as ours were spring order machines.
I showed it to service manager and he just laughed and said "don't do it, you'll blow it up"
Now that we see engine issues on turbo installs,,dealer obviously knew what they were talking about.

 

[cannondale27]

no bias, just looking out for me, they were notified about the issue in Sept/Oct about the 16 issues by rep.
There were little to no issues with 15 and older sleds they installed turbos on, so I agree with you there.
He was also at service school in November were the problems were discussed in length.
I also received the offer for the turbo in the mail, as ours were spring order machines.
I showed it to service manager and he just laughed and said "don't do it, you'll blow it up"
Now that we see engine issues on turbo installs,,dealer obviously knew what they were talking about.

If they discussed it at the tech school it was just in your area and not in the itinerary the hand out. First place anyone around here heard it or learned of it was from TY.

 

[09nytro]

What we was told to do is pull off the boost controller and send them back because some of them got programmed wrong .... When you take that off its only at 4 lbs and that's pretty safe , not much can happen at 4lbs !!!

 

[cannondale27]

What we was told to do is pull off the boost controller and send them back because some of them got programmed wrong .... When you take that off its only at 4 lbs and that's pretty safe , not much can happen at 4lbs !!!

That's the MPI controller issue. Every one got that notice but nobody got notice of 16.5 rods being bad.

 

[09nytro]

That's the MPI controller issue. Every one got that notice but nobody got notice of 16.5 rods being bad.

That's funny ....Yamaha has not sent us anything about bad rods either , and I'm pretty sure if they thought they had bad rods then they would contact all dealers and let them know ....so I have not seen anything saying that the rods are bad , maybe it's over boosting and high compression and the rods fail ... I do not believe that they would build a engine and offer a turbo kit if they didn't think the rods could handle it ... The ones that the rods went out on
What was your boost at when it went ?
How was your air / fuel ?
Do you have gauges at all ?

We have 5 2016 sleds out with turbos and no problems at all , but we don't have the controllers in !

 

[machzrobbie]

There's no question in my mind that there is a issue with weak rods in the 2016. Yamaha Canada has posted on their web site not to install the turbo on the 16 model, MCX has issued the same, and so has Hurricane. Why would 3 companies deter people from buying their kits if there is not an issue- not very good business practices. There's pictures of weak rods that bent, which were tested by MCX in a press. And now there is real life experiences of people breaking motors - Somewhere, somehow someone missed the mark in the design/manufacturing of these parts. From what I've seen, and my opinion is that its a heat treating problem, and Yamaha just has to figure out how big and if/how to remedy the situation. It may even become a problem in n/a sled over time if it is a heat treating problem - but time will tell.

 

[cannondale27]

There's no question in my mind that there is a issue with weak rods in the 2016. Yamaha Canada has posted on their web site not to install the turbo on the 16 model, MCX has issued the same, and so has Hurricane. Why would 3 companies deter people from buying their kits if there is not an issue- not very good business practices. There's pictures of weak rods that bent, which were tested by MCX in a press. And now there is real life experiences of people breaking motors - Somewhere, somehow someone missed the mark in the design/manufacturing of these parts. From what I've seen, and my opinion is that its a heat treating problem, and Yamaha just has to figure out how big and if/how to remedy the situation. It may even become a problem in n/a sled over time if it is a heat treating problem - but time will tell.

X2 Well stated. Corporate did state in Email that they are investigating the issue. We all know what they will find. Bad heat treat on rods and some cases of uninformed who overboosted with MPI controller. I bet they cover both and am hopeful they upgrade all motors with bad rods so we dont end up with a mess in future when someone decides to turbo a 16.5.

 

[sk-rx1]

Some time last year when rumors of motor changes were heard Chris Reid's column did say that changes were being made for produceablity, no changes in performance. Produceabiltiy changes normally mean that they are looking for more efficient,less expensive ways to produce a product. They got that I guess.

 

[mshabaz]

how do you know if you have an old good motor and not a new bad motor, whats the production run?

 

[Yamadog]

anything after 03-15-2015 build date or look in from the muffler side and if the valve cover gasket has 2- 1/2 round tabs sticking down at the cam journals that is the old motor the new ones just have a flat black gasket all the way around.

 

[NOS-PRO]

New engine has 4 bolts holding the valve cover instead of the old version of 6 bolts holding the valve cover (like Yamadog posted)

 

[ntm_08]

And a magnesium cover insted of the aluminium 2016 cover.

 

[Yamaluff 88]

I snow checked my sled last April. I received a letter from Yamaha congratulating me and offering a turbo for $2,400. I contacted my dealer right away and put another deposit down for the turbo. Since there in little to no snow here in Ontario I didn't bother to pick up my sled before New Years but I had to pay for it in full by dec 31st. I did so then drove the 2-1/2 hrs to finally go get my new ride on Jan 5th. I was told I can't have it and that they would let me know why and when it would be ready. I emailed my dealer on dec 9th telling him about the problems I read here on TY and they said neither they or Yamaha knew anything about it. Now he's telling me I was right and Yamaha is trying to figure out what to do. I will accept the sled with new rods installed and an extended warranty for no less than 2 years or my money back. I will post the outcome here when I know. Just wanted to share my experience in case it helps someone else.

Update: so today I got the call from my dealer. He will be delivering my sled to me on Friday. Yamaha has no official response to this problem yet but they told him to give me my sled and they will deal with it if anything goes wrong. He told me that the problem was in the programmers allowing too much boost and that's why some vipers were failing. He said it was sent out to be reprogrammed and it won't be a problem. On speaking to someone in the know, this is not the case. The sleds have bad rods...bottom line. I will be insisting that Yamaha, at very least, offer me three year warranty on my motor or replace the rods after the season assuming nothing goes wrong this winter. I have faith Yamaha will do the right thing since this is a public relations nightmare for them at this point. Yamaha riders are as loyal as I have been all my life ( min 20 machines purchased ) and yamaha knows brand loyalty is where they make money. So..... I'm going to ride the crap out of it and make sure I have a tow rope on board. Wish me luck

 

[Bob Apex]

got my sled today after my third motor did about 80 km and blow annoded motor what going on