Spark plug gap - should I be worried?

[biggsy]

HI there, my Seadoo GTi 130 recently went in for it's 100 hour service, and don't know if it's coincidence or not , but about 8 hours after, it began running rough - it still drove hard but when cruising it would seem to miss occasionally and when going slow it sometimes felt like it was only running on 2 cylinders. Yesterday it decided it was only going to run on 2 cylinders so I packed it up and brought it home. I worked out it was the rear cylinder and after removing the spark plug I found out why - there was no gap in the spark plug.

Can this be caused by the engine? Does the piston get that close? or should I just get it serviced elsewhere in the future (did the service department stuff it up?)

 

[kicker]

There is really no way that the piston would be able to hit that plug. The plug might have been dropped prior to installation and they didnt check the gap before putting it in.
Worst case scenario would be that a piece of metal broke off in the cylinder and hit the plug.

Double check the cylinder and piston with a flash-light to make sure you dont see any damage. That being said if they is extensive damage you probably would have heard it. You could do a compression check to make sure.

When you put the new plug in, did it run better?

 

[biggsy]

I've used a flashlight and can't see any damage on the piston, I've just got back from taking it out for a test ride and it all seems good now.