Just curious if anyone has tried wedging a banshee motor into a bike frame and making a snowbike out of it. Was doing some daydreaming today and remembered seeing some hot rod banshee motors used for sand drags. It made me think that might be a hot setup. The banshee motor should be a relatively straight forward drop into a bike frame. There are several companies out there building motors from 80-120 hp.
Anyone try a banshee motor?
- Thread starter Colo moto
- Start date
I did it, biggest problem I am having is destructive vibrations breaking motor mounts. Banshee engines are extremely out of balance and it's only worse when you bore and stroke them.
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That's bad ***! Any chance you could share a little more info on it? Any mods to the motor? HP? How does it compare to other timbersleds you have ridden?
It's a ported 4mil stroker with a cool head. Custom 2 into 1 intake and pipe. Runs up to 10500 -10800 rpm well so I guess I got my porting and pipe combo half decent. Like I said it's been fighting vibration problems so haven't gotten full potential out of it. It's absolutely horrible on fuel goes through about 6 gallons a ride but that should get a little better once I get the tuning correct, it's currently very rich. As for power it's an animal, i'd guess in the mid 60 hp area.
The engine swap is not very straight forward, banshee engine is very long compared to a normal mx engine. Had to create the whole bottom half of the frame. Then you have to build a custom pipe which is very time consuming. One plus is getting big cc power with small cc kickstarting. Very short stroke and easy to kick over.
Would I do it again? Probably not. Was it worth it? Every time I start it i'm reminded of how wicked it is to have two cylinders in a bike! Sounds like a mini sled engine
The engine swap is not very straight forward, banshee engine is very long compared to a normal mx engine. Had to create the whole bottom half of the frame. Then you have to build a custom pipe which is very time consuming. One plus is getting big cc power with small cc kickstarting. Very short stroke and easy to kick over.
Would I do it again? Probably not. Was it worth it? Every time I start it i'm reminded of how wicked it is to have two cylinders in a bike! Sounds like a mini sled engine
I owned a couple banshees back in the day, and I would have to say the only way I would use one as a snowbike would be with a billet case and a 800 skidoo top end. at least a 540cc range. They just do not make power that is useful IMO.
My last one was a 350cc full mod with 62whp, it was a blast but would flip over backwards all the time and the power was fairly unusable. I bought a different cylinder and did a more mild port, different pipes and ran on race gas with 15:1 compression and brought the tq WAY up with about 65whp, this was better but not even remotely as useful as a good 4 stroke.
My Berg 650 has just as much power and 3x the torque, and is much better suited
My last one was a 350cc full mod with 62whp, it was a blast but would flip over backwards all the time and the power was fairly unusable. I bought a different cylinder and did a more mild port, different pipes and ran on race gas with 15:1 compression and brought the tq WAY up with about 65whp, this was better but not even remotely as useful as a good 4 stroke.
My Berg 650 has just as much power and 3x the torque, and is much better suited
Yes, it wouldn't be great in a Dirtbike with wheels. But on a purpose built bike that will only ever have a track on it the power is excellent and very useable. There's a reason sleds have two stroke twins!
K
kraut
Member
hey Casey. I think you and your buddy ran into me and my crew this winter up the watershed off the Pipeline at Corbin ..I have pics of your bike on snow but my phone is screwed.I thought it ran pretty sweet. Sounded nasty
Haha yeah we were up there, that was probably right after my choke fell out of the carb from all the vibrations!
There is FAR more technology in the banshee game than what has been expressed in this thread. 80 hp is now easily made on pump gas with north of 50tq.
I think you would have to push over 100 hp to make it better than a modded cr500. Would be a neat set up though, but don't think it would be worth it in comparison to the cost and benefits of the cr.
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portgrinder
Well-known member
neat but ya i agree. you can get 50ft.lb out of a 500 with some work.
I might be wrong but I think banshee engines operate on a "Big Bang" type firing so they aren't staggered in firing which would explain the vibes.
Banshee's fire 180 degrees apart which creates a rocking effect in the engine. As well, the throws are ridiculously out of balance along the lines of 120 grams each throw. I am in the process of adding tungsten weights opposite the conn rod pin to get it closer to balance and we'll see how that works.
