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Is it best to avoid the late build 2016 SR Vipers (bad rods)?

YamaSpark said:
YIKES! That sucks that both had the bad rods. Well, at least Yamaha took care of you both.
Did you guys buy the sleds from the same dealer at the same time? Do you happen to know the build dates of the sleds?
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Yes we bought the sleds from the same dealer, we had both spring power surge pre-ordered. They were probably built very close to each other, the serial numbers were very close. I think they were both built in August 2015.
 

I have a 2016 stx dx 146 very late build. Got 12,000 and have not had a problem to date. stock other than 8dn belt.
 
Are you really,really, absolutely sure about this statement that some rods are bad and some rods are good??? I have a very reliable source that has rebuilt alot of TR1 engines for turbo-mount. They have not seen any differences of factory-rods in all these engines. And they have both snowmobiles and UTV as reference.
The rods are fine for non-turbo and the safety margin is too low for turbo with a simple explanation. XYZ1000 UTV has the exact same issue when turbo is mounted and will not withstand higher output than about 155 hp without change of rods. So don't scare people to buy these sleds/utv if they don't intend to turbo it. And if they want to turbo it after some time it's not a big deal to change these rods, the problem is the competence among dealers that really don't have the knowledge to do this operation and will have to use several days for this.

If you use a skilled supplier that makes rod-change and turbo-mount in the same time = no problem. (sorry for bad spelling.... i'm from sweden)
 
SwedeViper said:
Are you really,really, absolutely sure about this statement that some rods are bad and some rods are good??? I have a very reliable source that has rebuilt alot of TR1 engines for turbo-mount. They have not seen any differences of factory-rods in all these engines. And they have both snowmobiles and UTV as reference.
The rods are fine for non-turbo and the safety margin is too low for turbo with a simple explanation. XYZ1000 UTV has the exact same issue when turbo is mounted and will not withstand higher output than about 155 hp without change of rods. So don't scare people to buy these sleds/utv if they don't intend to turbo it. And if they want to turbo it after some time it's not a big deal to change these rods, the problem is the competence among dealers that really don't have the knowledge to do this operation and will have to use several days for this.

If you use a skilled supplier that makes rod-change and turbo-mount in the same time = no problem. (sorry for bad spelling.... i'm from sweden)
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YES there is a difference in rods on some 16's. Hardness. Now does that mean that all the hardened rods will survive turbo and the soft ones won't? Don't know but the new replacement rods are hard so it stands to reason that the originals that are hard are at least better than the soft originals. Now you and Yamaha can claim all day long that the soft rods are fine for non turbo but that remains to be seen over time and user use. If I knew motor had soft rods there is no way I would ever own that motor. A soft rod is a defective rod no ifs ands or buts.

Other possibility that I suspect may be true is geographic location. Perhaps every motor in Sweden did have soft rods but in USA they did not. So only way to know is to check.
 
cannondale27 said:
YES there is a difference in rods on some 16's. Hardness. Now does that mean that all the hardened rods will survive turbo and the soft ones won't? Don't know but the new replacement rods are hard so it stands to reason that the originals that are hard are at least better than the soft originals. Now you and Yamaha can claim all day long that the soft rods are fine for non turbo but that remains to be seen over time and user use. If I knew motor had soft rods there is no way I would ever own that motor. A soft rod is a defective rod no ifs ands or buts.

Other possibility that I suspect may be true is geographic location. Perhaps every motor in Sweden did have soft rods but in USA they did not. So only way to know is to check.
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How many rods have you compared? From what i'm reading in all these different topics about this issue there is a statement that has becomed a truth with very little facts behind. However I don't feel so worried about this... you have the same engine in snowmobiles, utv, watercraft (more?), and without turbo they dont break down (so far), I mean there would be alot of failures already if this would be a big problem. This kind of problem would show rather instantly! Only reason from my opinion that some machines with turbo don't break down with factory rods is who's behind the steering post. Old careful man with a turbo on trails probably doesn't stress the rods like a powder-machine that someone with a hard riding style owns.

Geographic location seems a little unbelivable. Both UTV's and snowmobiles with only "soft" rods here in sweden.... nope.

Again sorry for bad spelling!
 
SwedeViper said:
How many rods have you compared? From what i'm reading in all these different topics about this issue there is a statement that has becomed a truth with very little facts behind. However I don't feel so worried about this... you have the same engine in snowmobiles, utv, watercraft (more?), and without turbo they dont break down (so far), I mean there would be alot of failures already if this would be a big problem. This kind of problem would show rather instantly! Only reason from my opinion that some machines with turbo don't break down with factory rods is who's behind the steering post. Old careful man with a turbo on trails probably doesn't stress the rods like a powder-machine that someone with a hard riding style owns.

Geographic location seems a little unbelivable. Both UTV's and snowmobiles with only "soft" rods here in sweden.... nope.

Again sorry for bad spelling!
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Here’s the thing. I buy Yamaha for OVERBUILT engines. If you want to buy a good enough motor that’s fine. Maybe some might decide at 10000 mi they want to turbo. What then?
 
Also I mentioned geographic location because for a small country there did seem to be a lot of blown ones in beginning. Maybe coincidence I don’t know. Yamaha doesn’t know. Nobody knows exactly which sleds have soft junk rods and which have rods that have been proven to last in NA and Turbo.
 
I have personally put a file to a set of nicely hardened rods and a set of soft rods. They are both out there. All it takes is one. I don’t have any proof soft rods will not last long term. How about getting me a sled with soft rods and I will mod it no turbo and ride it to find out. Won’t be with my $ though!
 
All three rods in my 16 SR Viper were soft, verified with file test!

At least one rod in my brother's sled was soft (and it broke, ventilating the block)
 
https://ty4stroke.com/threads/yamaha-2016-engines-explaned.140344/
I guess SwedeVipers argument here is that ALL rods are fine for NA. OK. Remains to be seen. But the FACT is when Yamaha did this motor change it was not announced. Even dealers did not know. Then Yamaha made the statement in writing that the new motor was equal or better than the old in everyway. That is not true since old rods held up fine for Turbo to a much higher hp than the new bad rods. Many 16 owners cannot Turbo now. All of this is beside the fact that there is a difference in hardness among the new rods. No one has shown me or posted here a broken new style rod that passed a file test and was run at a reasonable PSI. Yet many have shown broken rods that did not pass the file test. Rods are not fine for NA until the NA guys have the safety margin to Turbo if they so choose. Just like the earlier motors.
 
I have a 14 turbo and my dealer is sitting on a 16 Stx/dx 146 but he ran the serial number and it is on the recall list. But Yamaha will not do the recall for me to move my turbo over. To shed miles and get more track. So my dealer gets to sit on that sled.
 
petey_sx700 said:
I have a 14 turbo and my dealer is sitting on a 16 Stx/dx 146 but he ran the serial number and it is on the recall list. But Yamaha will not do the recall for me to move my turbo over. To shed miles and get more track. So my dealer gets to sit on that sled.
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There is a lot of leftover 16's sitting at dealers with big discounts. I was in sales at Dealership when this all went down. Really put the dealers in a position especially once the rods were found bad. Do you play dumb and make the sale or tell customer all you know and hope for best? Heck even mentioning the new motor put some fear in buyers. Glad I am not in sales anymore.
 
I've got a 2016 with what I believe to be soft rods (the half moon shown in the sticky to identify which have soft rods says so). I've only put 2000kms on it but so far no issues. Between stock 130hp and turbo 180+ hp thats a big difference. I am not worried about it so far and will be putting a clutch kit in it this winter but that is it. $7500 for a brand new yamaha where I am is a steal of a deal. If you don't plan to turbo I'd jump on it!
 
I have 2016.5. didnt know about the rod issue when i bought it, couple months later Yamaha released the recall but I am NA so they wouldn't do the rods. Rode 3500KMS last year with no issue, decided this year in the off season to do 2.5 EVO tune. Now I'm nervous about my rods, I think i am going to check them with scratch test, but it was my understanding that even if you have bad rods NA sleds are fine. lots of discussion about it now and its making me wonder if this was a good idea or not.
 
Quipper16 said:
I have 2016.5. didnt know about the rod issue when i bought it, couple months later Yamaha released the recall but I am NA so they wouldn't do the rods. Rode 3500KMS last year with no issue, decided this year in the off season to do 2.5 EVO tune. Now I'm nervous about my rods, I think i am going to check them with scratch test, but it was my understanding that even if you have bad rods NA sleds are fine. lots of discussion about it now and its making me wonder if this was a good idea or not.
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Quipper I have to believe that Yamaha will warranty NA sleds if a rod goes they have never personally let me down warranty wise. Nor have I heard of anyone with blown /broke motor even modded or aftermarket turbos that was not warrantied even out of warranty period as long as they had a decent dealer to help them. However I cannot vouch for them without some mistrust since they have deceived the public in more than one way recently. So far the good of Yamaha still outweighs the bad. If I was in your shoes I would take the chance. For many of us modding our sleds is a large part of snowmobiling and worth the risk. You only live once!
 
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