What is an RZ350?

 

It's a bike from yamaha that used the engine from the banshee..well, actually, yamaha took the engine of the RZ350 and put it in the banshee. It's quite old (don't know exactly, but that might be 80s). At the very beginning it was a 250RZ, it has then been upgraded to 350 and 500 (not the same engine for this last one). I guess there are very few 500 left, at least in one piece.

 

I do vot remember the years the bike were made but they were about late 70's early 80's the RZ had a similar engines to the Banshee but it had Power Valves but if I remember right they also made a RD 350 which had about the same engine but did not have the power valves. I might not be tottaly correct but that is what I remember seeing

 

Yeah.
In france, the RDLC 350 and 500 existed. Don't know the differences though.
Those were suicide machines.

 

One of my favourite subjects, how can i resist. Yamaha made aircooled RD 250 and 350's back in the seventies. The 350 grew into a 400 for the several years (these are the source of the "long rods" used in modified banshee and RZ engines)
The RD became the RDLC (liquid cooled) in about 1980, in 83 this engine was transformed into the RZ which sported new cylinders with powervalves, these allowed more top end power and better midrange torque than the conventional RDLC jugs.

The RZ 250 and 350 use identical lower ends, in New Zealnd it was very common for 250 owners to buy up 350 top ends and bolt em up for more go.

Even better news is that the RZ 350 top ends bolt onto the Banshee, the banshee engine is a derivative from the RZ. I've posted before on the power potential of these things, up to just over 70hp at the wheels at about 9500rpm and with a midrange torque spread most banshee owners would kill for. The conversion is imvolved and finding the parts somewhat difficult in the US due to limited numbers. MDS (mobiledyno.com)will have dyno numbers up hopefully in Decemeber on the RZ banshee conversion. Two of my friends here in NZ race mx with these things with great results.

The RZ 500 was only produced in limited numbers in response to Suzukis RG500 square 4 GP replica. The RZ500 was a vee4 with counterbalancer, two cylinders where case reed inducted and the other two cylinder where piston port reed setup. Alot of hp to had in these (over 100hp with a set of pipes and a decent tune) These can be found down in New Zealnad for around $US 1500 - 2500 for a comlete bike, a bit better than the US$ 4-5k i've seen in the US thats for real..........

 

Are you saying that I can simply bolt on a 350 RDLC top end on my shee and have 70hp?
That would be cool.

 

You're talking about a prepared engine?
Check this link. They have power and torque for different year.
http://www.ifrance.com/rd-rz350lc/pageSPECS.htm
Is it really better?

 

Can you tell me all the links you know about RZs (or RDLC).
I'd like to put a 500 rdlc engine in my shee. If I could find pics and data, that'd be nice.

 

RD500 quad, all ready been done check out:

http://www.macdizzy.com/rz.htm

general stuff on RD 500's

http://www.rzrd500.com/

SUZUKI 500 4 CYLINDER TWO SROKE QUADRACER
http://www.lancegamma.com/forsale.htm

general suzuki 500 4 cylinder stuff

http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Rob.Koopman/rg500.html

for RZ 350 banshee engine parts pics see my web page

http://www.geocities.com/kiwi_craig/bansheelink.htm

for RZ 350 details:
http://www.spec2.com/

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/F...442/micro.html

http://www.micronet.net/users/~motomail/rzpage.html

http://www.ifrance.com/rd-rz350lc/

http://www.rz350parts.com/

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/6992/rd350.htm

Happy reading

Kiwi

 

wow!
Great.