Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

I am a bit surprised that so far there has been no mention of the Rolls Royce Crecy engine, a V12 26litre sleeve valve boosted two stroke developed during WW2 but did not see production due to the development of the gas turbine. It was intended as a sprint fighter engine. I would have to say there i...

If you torque in the sequence the manufacturer/ fastener manufacturer recommends you will get a clean feel as the wrench clicks off [or whatever yours does]. Lube threads and nut faces as they recommend, if its engine oil, its engine oil that is used in that engine unless specified otherwise [no syn...

Spark plugs dont spark, they ionize. A turbulent chamber and charge will propagate pretty evenly regardless of ground strap position.

Years ago i used to see heads for plug thread repair due to owners cranking that sucker down till the lines came up, very rare these days.

Cheers.

The main reason i don't use a fixed bore dimension off the package is because the ambient temp can vary wildly throughout the year, 4°c to 45°c, i have measured pistons in the middle of summer that would have .0015" clearance if bored to dimension and conversely have .0025" if bored to dimension in ...

I have received various reply's from piston manufacturers regarding hard and soft piston coatings. As there are a number of types in use the allowance in piston measurement can vary, from allowing nothing with a piston/bore size to size fit [no clearance] with abrade-able soft coatings, up to allowi...

If you had a bit of a chuckle watching someone check a piston with a vernier and thinking what they see on the dial is accurate enough to bore to,how's this! I do bores for a lot of service centers, they are sent back with clear instructions that the bores need to be cleaned to a standard, also that...

One of the most feared statements by a prospective machinist is,,

" Piece of piss mate, how hard can it be"

Cheers.

BC that is how i do my c/i or bronze guides. K-Line reamer in drive head to .001"-.0015" under-size then finish with Sunnen hone , check throughout with pin gauges, no hour glassing, taper or out of round. I have checked in the past with internal bore gauges but the consistency has proved that step ...

K-Line Bronze lube is one of the best. A low speed electric drill is better to drive a reamer as it keeps rotation constant, stop and start hand reaming is tough on reamers.

Cheers.

I agree with BC, and i see Packard's point as well. Off engineering topics are not really what this forum is about,,but,, I don't mind seeing other peoples perspectives on events that a lot of people do not get exposed to. I can see that i am either not alone in support or counter to issues, i'm a b...

Some valid points by contributors for sure. The issue that i was describing was churning, where the proximity of the oil surface to the crank was getting picked up and loading the cylinders. People conversant with the engine i quoted would know that the first area to show oil flooding is the air box...

Many years ago i had an experience with a 4/71 Detroit diesel that had excessive oil consumption between services, the engine was not that big on hours and performed faultlessly otherwise. Detroit offered a reason that possibly the crankcase was being over filled at service, No was the reply, it was...

I understand your reasoning Mike, some had turned it into a dart board and can not even see that.And yes, the forum has engineering as its core. Unfortunately for me the timing of shutting the board was just before i was going to make one of my very very rare political/sociological contributions in ...

Sounds like a plan Travis, at least you acknowledged you have more to learn with tuning. Nothing wrong with that at all, we all started somewhere, at least you have had a go, and seen where your limits are,,there are others that can tune an engine to a standstill and not see their finger prints stil...

We have two different applications here, I went off topic by bringing up the Harley Davidson application, but as both you guys have experience in what we do with that vehicle i thought it worth mentioning if it could help. With the S/B Chev, the lifter manufacturers recommendation will be the way to...