Locked up Phazer- ??

[Firetrail]

My friend has a 2008 Phazer that he bought with a locked up motor. The sled has 600 miles on it and has had what appears to be a tough life. The previous owner took it into an authorized dealer a month ago as the sled had sat for 5 years and would not start. The dealer put in a new battery and got it started. The dealer serviced the sled and did all the updates. They told the owner that they had the sled running for an hour to make sure all was well with it and it sounded fine and threw no codes. He then took it home, started it and ran it in the shed. When he stopped he said there was a loud "clunk" and the sled quit. My friend purchased the sled not running. When you try to turn the primary it does not move at all. The solenoid clicks but the starter does nothing. My friend fears the worst and thinks the motor is locked up.
What do you Yamaha owners think? I know the starters in these sleds had failure issues but would a starter failure act like this and lock up the motor? Are there other things that may cause this or do we have to fear the worst? He and I are determined to find the cause and get the sled back on the snow. Just wondering where we might need to start. Both of us are old "wrench heads" and tearing into a 4 stroke Yammie does not really intimidate us. We are just wanting to look into some of the simpler things before we start tearing into the engine.
I will surely post on what we ultimately find.

 

[Firetrail]

Damage

Well... 6oo miles. Fresh out of dealer service. Engine dropped piston and rod through the block.

 

[Snowmow]

Ouch.

 

[paulharris]

yep, motor is junk. I bought a 2007 phazer cheap that was locked up. i finally found it threw a rod through the block. very difficult to see the engine damage on phazer until you start really tearing it apart. Likely it was starved for oil briefly (rollover?) sometime in its history and thats when the damage was done. spun a bearing then its a ticking time bomb. I didnt even bother repairing that engine $$$, i found another good engine and swapped motors. many people never were able to grasp the concept that you can not roll these sleds over and just fire it back up like a 2 stroke rev it to the moon and take off immediately. they need to idle after rollovers to stabilize oil pressure. good luck with the project.

 

[cacsrx1]

yep, motor is junk. I bought a 2007 phazer cheap that was locked up. i finally found it threw a rod through the block. very difficult to see the engine damage on phazer until you start really tearing it apart. Likely it was starved for oil briefly (rollover?) sometime in its history and thats when the damage was done. spun a bearing then its a ticking time bomb. I didnt even bother repairing that engine $$$, i found another good engine and swapped motors. many people never were able to grasp the concept that you can not roll these sleds over and just fire it back up like a 2 stroke rev it to the moon and take off immediately. they need to idle after rollovers to stabilize oil pressure. good luck with the project.

Yep HUGE problem with the 4 strokes. I had a tether and roll over valve on my Apex and still spun a rod bearing. Saved it before it completely grenaded....