GP 800 Power Valve question

[polaridoo]

Sorry to have to ask this common question, but I could not find a definitive answer when doing a search. On a 1998 Yamaha GP 800, does this have the 'faulty' power valves? And if it does, which updated power valve does it need? (meaning what year.. I saw stuff regarding '02 and '03 updates) And do you sell the latest, correct version of this power valve? And final question, do I determine if this jetski has the 'bad' power valve by part number or by color of the bushings? As a side bar, the engine in this ski totally shelled 2 years ago with very low hours. The dealer reluctantly replaced it and it was not under warranty. I am curious now if the power valves were the reason, and if this 'new' motor has the correct version of power valve.

Thanks

[Bryan Glynn]

The -02 and -03 suffexes are not year designators, just the end of the powervalve part numbers. Think of them as revisions.

Yes, all 1998's had outdated valves, they were actually a couple revisions behind. If you got yours redone a couple years ago, it still has the 'bad' valves in it, and yes it's possible yours failed for that reason, but you didn't give any details about the failure, so...

Yes we sell -03 spec valves for $120 ea.

[polaridoo]

This is my friends Yamaha. But according to him, his wife was just cruising around, doing nothing wrong, and the engine quit. There were no warning signs before the engine died. When attempting restart (which it would never run again), it did sound as if there might be some metal pieces in there. When this happened 2 years ago, I knew nothing about jetskis or the possible power valve issue. My friend took the ski to the dealer and they said the entire motor needed to be replaced. They did not offer any specifics at at all if I remember correctly. They just said, "Well, it looks like you have done everything on your end OK". And then with a lot of persisitance my friend got them to fix the motor for free.

[polaridoo]

My biggest concern is that maybe the original failure was the power valve, and based on when the egine was replaced and what you said, it may still have an old style power valve. So, I would hate for this engine to shell again and for Yamaha to say "We aren't covering it this time"

[Bryan Glynn]

Well, you DEFINTELY have old style valves in there, but no one could say what caused your original failure at this point. Your call.