Richard Holdener to test the Piston Reversal theory

[pishta]

Today’s machining and materials are much nicer. But even in the early days of machining they could get things to fit amazingly well. The biggest advancement for engines was the aluminum/copper piston.

Oil certainly has come a long way as well as EFI. Nothing like cracking open a Magnum w/80K plus and seeing crosshatching.

Merlin engines license built by Packard (only US company that Rolls Royce found worthy tolerance wise at the time!) had machined parts handled with gloves and stored in paper to prevent fingerprint oil from getting on them. Some tight tolerances indeed.

 

[pishta]

Hell, Richard ain't got a need to do the experiment. We'll have it hashed out right here before he ever gets a chance.

Its all about the channel subscriber numbers......Ask Tony! I think either would take a dump on the dash if it got them another 5000 subscribers, although Holdener has hard dyno data on all his builds to back his stance plus he seems very neutral on brand bias.

 

[pishta]

I bet Tony puts his boxer shorts on backwards too.

 

[rumblefish360]

Rolls & Royce were a good team. Royce, from what I read, was a hell of a machinist who suffered from perfection syndrome. Obviously the kind of machinist/engineer/designer you would want. As well as smart, realllllly smart!

The natural oils on the human hand can be quite nasty on some metals. Weird!

 

[Bewy]

A story I heard about RR, I believe it is true...
Some RR cars used the GM Turbo 400 trans. After years of trouble free use, RR stripped a trans to 'see how it worked'. They found sharp edges on the valve body valves. Cannot have that rough finish in a RR, now can we???
So valve ends were rounded/polished, trans re-assembled. And trans did not work properly...

 

[rumblefish360]

My kind of tinker! Always looking for an edge or trick.
Nice to know they didn’t find one. But it would be cool if they did.

 

[Dartswinger70]

I ran a 1971 demon with 340 that had pistons turned around so notches were at the rear...ran super strong but had a ping sound because pistons were coming up and hitting barely....gobs of power and incinerated tires @ 35mph with 727/3000/ man valve body and 3.55's

It would have ran like that with the pistons in correctly.. (but I sense that you were being sarcastic?)

 

[Dartswinger70]

For what it’s worth my junkyard magnum when torn down showed very little measurable bore wear or taper at 91,300 verified miles. Rod bearings showed a little scuffing, main and cam bearings looked brand new. Measured factory ring gap on all 8 top rings and all were 020-024.

Fuel injected engines run cleaner than carbed the days of "sludge" were hard on engines.

 

[Dartswinger70]

Why would that be, UT just regurgitates what he hears. As mentioned above other folks have said reversing off set pistons will show a slight power increase for years, this is not new information. Anyone the understands what the ‘ thrust side’ of a cylinder is will understand why. For the guy searching for a junkyard engine to run a test. A well worn bore and piston will not show much change, why? Because the piston and bore are worn and there will be excess piston clearance regardless of how the piston is installed. A meaningful test would require pistons-rings-bores well within new factory specifications.

Yes, that seems to be a major problem in todays world...