In todays market place there are a number of folks making cool heads for Banshees. I will hopefully be buying one for mine in the near future but I wanted to see what you guys think about the different manufacturers of these products to help me with my decision.

Lets take a look at ADA, Pro Design and Trinity Racings versions of these products.

Pro Design was the first one to come up with the idea for the cool head as far as I know. Trinity was the first to come out interchangeable domes and last but not least ADA is the first with a one piece design.

So who makes the best Cool Head? Well thats what I'm here for. What do you guys think?

Oh and one more thing. Would someone mind telling me the + and - of interchangeable domes. Is it not true that once you put the domes that you prefer into the head, most people would leave it the heck alone? Unless you go take your bike and do some heavy bore work when would you want to change the domes?

Man I wish there was a mag out there that would give us the lowdown on products like this. But as we know there would be winners and losers and god forbid a mag lose an advertisement client because of an honest opinion. Wimps!

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'96 Banshee, '86 250R 4TRX, 2 '83 185S



[This message has been edited by Darby Crash (edited 08-18-1999).]

 

listen===forget about all of them and get a duncan racing ptr(paul turner racing)powerhead...it not only works the same as the prodesign but it looks the best with the flat top instead of having all of the ridges on it like the rest and it has interchangeable domes and is easy to install.

 

Okay, I'm sold. PTR is the best because it looks better.

Now don't get me wrong. I do appreciate the input. I forgot all about PTR. However my concerns are more along the lines of quality in workmanship, performance, ease of installation and longetivity of product. Looks are important as well but really on the bottom of the list. So, how does the powerhead look now? What about the others?

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'96 Banshee, '86 250R 4TRX, 2 '83 185S

 

They are all pretty much the same as far as quality, performance etc. Get the one you like the best.

 

The ability to easily change domes in the aftermarket heads is somewhat interesting to me. Most riders won't ever change a dome, nor will need to. The difference in compression ratios and squish band clearances, all the factors of a head's set-up, that can be altered in a interchangable dome, doesn't fit into most peoples needs.

Not to say that you, nor anyone for that matter would never actually get around to changing a dome, its that a properly set-up head will provide far enough variability to provide the performance gain required. Compression ratios are often increased to provide more power on the low-end to mid power range to offset radical port modifications that don't support lower RPM's "rideability".

Higher compression ratios do have the tendency to lessen a motors ability to rev quickly, but it is so indicernable it comes down to crunching numbers to determine the milliseconds involved. Higher compression ratios will limit how high a bike can rev, but where these limitations become relavent and pertinent, is far beyond that average rider will encounter. A typical Banshee set-up for the maximum power on race gas will see 12,500(14.5:1 or so compression ratio), same motor but on alcohol will only see 10,500(18 to 19:1 compression ratio). But again most riders won't see those kinds of RPM, the pipe becomes a limiting factor, it simply won't enable a motor to rev that high. T-5 Toomeys make their power in the low to mid 8K RPM range for reference.

So why do you need interchangeable domes, I guess it comes down to money. Typically when building motors, you have to ask what octane do you want to run. That sets the direction of focus of developing a motor. So with interchangable domes you could feasibly set up a motor with the higher octane requirements, run it with race gas, purchase another set of domes that require lower octane, and off you ride. But this gets back to the point about having higher compression ratios to develope more power to offset the porting modifications that don't support lower RPM rideability. It doesn't make sense to me. Determine how much money you wish to pay for gas, and develope your motor from there.

Another interesting point about interchangable domes is the actual construction/design of the head case and dome. They had to devise a plan to be able to get into the head case behind the combustion pocket to be able to machine the water passages in. Also with an interchangable/removable dome with a centered spark plug, it is FAR easier to chuck it up in a lathe to machine it than the hassle of setting up a non-centered (OEM 250R for example) in a milling machine to perform modifications. I think that they came by it by accident and were able to push it as a selling point.

The "Cool Head" does offer better cooling and that does help, but the stock system in proper working order usually suffices. The Banshee's motor comes from the RZ series road race bikes. Those motors were hitting high HP figures, running at 11 to 12K RPM's for extended periods of time, without the fancy SHINY "Cool Heads". Granted they weight less. But the stock system is acceptable.

"Cool Heads" do offer a way to boost performance, but can easily be done with the OEM piece. They are SHINY, and I am a victim of that all the time.....OOOOOOOO Look at that shiny goodie....OOOOOOO...only 60 bucks for that gas cap huh???.....OOOOOOO....