Banshee owners, Have you ever asked yourself, “I wonder if there is a way I can get my Banshee cylinders ported, but have the option to put them back to stock form in case I do not like it?” Or have you ever thought, “I would like to have my Banshee ported for more power, but I have been told that if I go to sell it, the resale value of my Banshee would be less because of the reliability factor with ported motors?”

This is a common problem that owners of the mighty Banshee twin cylinder beast face. Well, now there is an answer to these questions in which most Banshee owners will like: Vito’s Superstock Pistons.

Cutting pistons is nothing new to the motor world, but it can be time consuming and costly. Vito has taken this process a step further by having Wiseco manufacture pistons with these cuts already in place to his specs. The pistons are the equivalent of raising the exhaust port 1.75 mm or 3.5 degrees more duration with the cutout on the exhaust side of the piston. For reliability, Vito has also had Wiseco move the ring lands down on the piston to help keep heat away from them. You will also notice the dual angle crown on the piston that brings the compression up to where it is supposed to be and compensate for the cutout in the piston. The intakes are also bigger and higher up to increase intake timing and to allow more of the next fuel charge into the cases. With the piston skirt being shorter and with the shorter and internally tapered wrist pin there is considerable weight savings. The lighter weight piston is nice for a quicker revving motor.

Our stock Banshee was in need of a rebuild due to the extended hours of wide-open running up and down our fire roads and the drag strip. Although the compression was not low, the service limit for hours was met and we did not want to take a chance of scattering a perfectly good motor just because of simple neglect. We also wanted to get more performance out of it without spending the big dollars of a port job. We contacted Vito and he set us up with a set of his Super Stock Pistons to install into our Banshee.

After having the cylinders bored and reinstalling everything, it was time to ride. After a careful break-in period, we headed out to our favorite drag area. With no other changes then a fresh bore, Super Stock Pistons, and correct jetting we right away noticed how much more responsive the motor was. We were worried that we would lose some low-end torque with these pistons being the equivalent of raising the exhaust port. To our surprise bottom end response was at least equal to or more then stock. After numerous runs up and down our drag area we found that we also had considerably more mid to top end power with an increase of several hundred RPM’s on our stock piped Banshee.

By simply installing a set of these pistons you can transform your stock Banshee into a “sleeper” Banshee that will blow right by your buddies stock Banshee and he won’t even know what hit him, unless he reads this article before you do and buys his own set.

With this setup Vito also recommends his jet kit with includes 35 pilots, custom Red needles and bigger mains. To top off the package he also says to run his 4-degree timing advance key and reed spacers. We did not put these 2 items on, as we wanted to get an idea of the performance gain with the Super Stock Pistons alone.

We are very happy with the performance gains of the Vito Power Pistons and would have no problem recommending them to anyone who takes care of their Banshee by having it on a regular maintenance schedule, runs good oil, and keeps the air filter clean.

For Vito’s Superstock Pistons and other ATV maintenance parts check out our sponsor partspitstop.com