In a message dated 9/7/01 1:59:13 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
paul-richardson@cyberware.co.uk writes:
<< Just a general inquiry among those of you who race with domed pistons (not
a
favored piece of engineering in my book, but I realize that this is the only
way to achieve high compression ratios with some engines). Have any of you
had
any regular piston failures with them or split rings.
>>
Auggie Engelhardt, someone who attended college with me in the late
50's/early 60's raced a Healey 104 for years with John's dome pistons, with
no failures. It wasn't until the car sat for years and he tried to fire it
up did one fail. Some squirrel was loading nuts into the carburetors.
Somehow a steel ball bearing got sucked into the engine head and smashed one
of the pistons.
I assume that popup pistons are considered different. Jack Wheeler won the
runoffs with Cosworth popup pistons. I ran a few races using these pistons,
and plan to put another engine together with them. Kas's little black book
says to use flat head pistons.
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