Ahh. Pimm's cup, one of those sneaky Digestifs that look so good and taste
so bad. When I was an impressionable youth (vs. currently an impressionable
old fart) I was hanging out in a bar in Singapore (transport courtesy of
U.S.S. Enterprise, CVAN-65), watching a very sophisticated expat brit crowd
mix, mingle and socialize. I heard the fellow next to me order a Pimm's cup,
and thought it looked good and sounded brutally cool. So I ordered one. One
of the longest drinks of my life. As I remember I thought it tasted like
plant fertilizer, and don't ask me why I know how that tastes.
I have a bottle on Pimms #1 in my bar upstairs. I think I'll go try again
now that my tastes have changed. after all, I like Ouzo now.
On the question of piston clearance, I'm sure Kas's approach will get you
closer than cold measure, but the amount of silicon and other alloying
materials in aluminum determines how much it expands and retains strength
while hot, and hot means 500 to 700 degrees. a lot happens between 210 and
500. In general these alloys make the aluminum harder to machine and harder
to forge. That's why cast aluminum pistons are sometimes superior to forged.
For example, japanese two stroke pistons had far too much aluminum to forge,
but they were far better than any forged piston you could buy. For quite a
while I had a reputation as a genius with Maicos because I could get them to
stop seizeing and go hundreds of hours before the piston slap got louder
than the open expansion chamber. My secret--throw away those beautiful
forged aluminum Mahle pistons and whack a yamaha SC500 piston to fit. Cast,
not forged.
That's all kind of theoretical--no one spends the money to make four stoke
pistons with that amount of silicon. The tooling costs are prohibitive I
hear.
Bottom line, you need the manufacturer's recommendation since they know what
they made them out of. If you can't get it I'd try Kas' approach, and go on
the loose side, especially in the back cylinders.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@autox.team.net
To: rkramer3@austin.rr.com; jrherrera90@hotmail.com; fot@autox.team.net
Sent: 1/11/2004 2:47 PM
Subject: Re: FW: Racing in short sentences
In a message dated 1/11/04 2:32:16 PM Pacific Standard Time,
rkramer3@austin.rr.com writes:
<< I didn't either, so I looked it up. Does this help?
http://hotwired.wired.com/cocktail/99/13/index3a.html
Pimm's Cup
>>
Thanks, Bob. I will print your history and include it.
|