I have a 97 gti which I have posted about before, well after fixing that problem and the ski working great for about 3 months it’s blew a piston, so me and my dad (an experienced mechanic) got to work and completely rebuilt the top end new pistons new sleeves and a used but clean head. That all goes fine and we get it rebuilt. We start it on the hose and it’s running fine. Dad takes it to the the lake a day before I’m able to go and says it was running fine from the ramp then the next time he took it out it was running fine then it started sputtering just enough for him to get back to the dock, never to start again. We did the usual check the plugs but they were fine we were getting spark but it just wasn’t starting even when we sprayed fuel directly through the carb, the only idea we have it the the spark timing is off because when it tries to start it completely stops the engine as if it firing when the piston is at the bottom of its stroke. We already have the engine out so I can’t test anything live, and our best guess is that the magneto/ stator is failing. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated as we are at a lose.