I’ve seen this same issue On a Yamaha 700. It overheated and messed up the valve clearances. We tore it down found the rings and cylinder were in useable shape but for some reason the exhaust valves wouldn’t seat properly even after we tried lapping them. They weren’t bent so we pressed out the guides replaced guides and valves with brand new ones and still one of the exhaust valves was still leaking dropping it from 130psi to 45psi. We discovered the head itself actually warped in the combustion chamber ovaling the valve seats On the exhaust side. We then discovered the main issue after re assembly was an aftermarket o2 sensor that kept reading good for the tuner he had. Turns out it was running lean and it got hot enough to warp the aluminum head right in the exhaust side of the combustion chamber. It got so hot it managed to warp the exhaust manifold. Still to this day I don’t know how the piston, rings and cylinder were still good.
2018 was the new X2 X4 platform that was an 850 twin. They have been rock solid reliable save a few hiccups here and there. The 708 single cylinder Subaru engine like in this video was only used by Yamaha for a couple years in the grizzly’s and first Gen Wolverine. They have now gone back to the tried and true 686 single for their Grizzly and Viking.
Definitely! The P5 is a great platform. I would run 1.5” spacers with some 27” tires right from the get go. One of the biggest drawbacks with the P5 from the factory is lack of ground clearance and that will help out tremendously!
Going to be hard to find with the current market and lack of inventory at dealers but then again you’ll pay near new price for a used one. I would honest try to find a 15’-16’ model year as they where manual shift only and geared a little lower so they handled bigger tires better. But the best thing would be to get what ever you can find when you’re ready to buy be it new or used.
