ITs what the dealership told us! IM not too sure, U know how the dealerships lie alot, But when we bought it from the dealership, the guy said that he put new pistons into it and he had papers to prove it! He said that if we dont believe him, he could of done a compression test, but my dad didnt want him to do the compression test because my dad believed him but i didnt! I will take a peak in the summer time because right now i dont want to take them completely off and work on them in the house, cause i then have to synchronize them, and u probably know how much pain in the but is to synchronize the carbs of a banshee. If it keeps on doing this and there is no solution that we can think of then i will take the carbs off my 01 banshee and put them on the 98 and see what happens! But it should start with the carbs of the 01 banshee cause the 01 starts rely easy, and i have not started the 01 banshee in 5 months and when i went to kick it over it started 1 kick LOL The 01 Has that much compression