I know this has came up before, but I have a short term memory. How much do you take off and what is the resulting compression? What is stock? I know increased compression helps lowend, but does it hurt topend. At what compression can you still run pump gas? Any help would be appreciated.

 

I shaved mine .015" (15 thousandths)and my brother shaved his .020". Both work great with pump gas.

 

That really doesn't sound like enough to make a difference. Less than 1/32 of an inch. What compression did it give you? Can anyone else back that up. I don't want to pull my head and have it machined only to find out it didn't make a difference. Thanks

 

I forgot to mention the power increase, didn't I! That's because I'm not sure if it did much! Although I should mention that the oem gasket is tin-foil thin, and my replacement was huge! If your bike's currently running, it's probably not worth the work and $40 to have it done. I only mill the heads on my bikes when I'm rebuilding the bike.

 

Try around 35-40thousandths.

 

I have the head on my Suzuki LT 250 R shaved .060". I have no trouble running on premium pump gas..

RoostKing

 

i have a 97 banshee and i had my head shaved 50 th..and it really helps the lowend ....i havent tried pump gas i always run 114...so..? it does give you more power..

 

Thanks everyone for the information. I think I will probably hold off on shaving mine until a rebuild. I am worried about it running hot and dripping antifreeze right now, and don't want to make it run any hotter. Should I worry about this? Plugs are light brown at WFO and I have an A&R heat exchanger. I have low tox antifreeze mixed 50/50 and I am wondering if it doesnt cool as well as regular. Any ideas?

 

I READ A ARTICLE ONCE THAT IF YOU REPOSITIONED THE OVERFILL LOWER THAN THE RADIATOR,THIS WOULD SPOT THE OVER FLOW ER DRIPPAGE...I PERSONALLY THINK ALL BANSHEE RUN THIS WAY....MINE DOES..

 

For a relative inexpensive price of around $65 to $90 you can send your head to any of the race shops and have them totally re-cut your head. If you are going to the hassle of having head off, then taking it down to only get the gasket mating surfaced machined, it will be worth the time and effort to send it off.

There is much more power to be gained all around by a properly set-up head; the proper squish band width, clearance, and angle, also a much better combustion pocket size and shape; all added up make for money well spent. You can tell the shop who you choose to do the work what octane gas you decide to run. They then can without any question set that head up to run with "X" octane of your choice. There is often too much variance in factory heads to say "well I had .020" milled off and....". You can run into problems in a hurry that are expensive and time consuming to fix. After all is said and done, there very well may have been 500 heads cut that way without a problem, but.....you possibly could never have a problem, but there's no sense in trying to save $30 on a $1300 motor.....I am always an advocate of doing everything completely and accurately--without trying to save a few bucks......



[This message has been edited by Backcountry (edited 10-13-1999).]