Originally Posted by RayJ
AFM kinda hit the nail on the head with running in the JLR. The piston and sleeve fit is not nearly as tight as many of the motors out there now. I personally don't understand why so many mfr's do this since it puts a huge strain on the rod bushings and wrist pin bushings. Alot of people wonder if the JLR is not so tight will it last as long? I'm on my second gallon with it, and I'm running the original rod and everything else. Compression is fine..... and I do a test similar to afm's.......(afew drops of oil in the compression chamber turn the motor to close to TDC and observe if there are air bubbles at the sides of the piston skirt wanting to leak out. Some leakage is okay alot is not.
My LSN settings are similar to AFM's with 8 turns out. In fact that's almost stock from the factory I believe. It seems rich but it's not. It's what the motor wants. Just give it what it wants. These motors are like children finicky sometimes but happy when you give them what they want.
Looking at Artificial-I's piston brought another thought to mind. Outside of the misplaced compression ring.........what kind of fuel are you running? What I really noticed is that there are almost no carbon deposits on the piston. That makes me wonder if your fuel has enough castor in it. I know there are raging debates about synthetic vs Castor oil as lubricants but I am a strong advocate of CASTOR!! I run Tornado fuel...........I don't know for sure what the castor content is but I'm thinking it's probably about 40% of the total oil content of 9%. The compression due to carbonization in my motor is actually going up! Nothing lubricates our engines at top end like castor. Previous to Tornado I ran Byrons fuel(also high castor content) My engines always last a long time. This "my engine needs to be perfectly clean inside" is just plain wrong. Carbonization is actually a GOOD thing.
I have run the low castor fuels before, and my motors never lasted very long. I run Tornado or Byrons because I know my engines will last.
I also experimented abit with compression on the motor. I actually took out a .004 shim, and the motor never fussed one bit(total head clearance .018)
No detonation......and the motor picked up abit of bottom end.
Wildcat , 20% w/ 10% oil, which uses the klotz oil package and yes all my motors are very clean when running this stuff. Theres a few tiny tarnish spots at the top of the piston but thats about it.
Here is a blip from wildcats website:
Oil content, Why is this important? The oil in the fuel provides many things to the engine all of which are important and none of which is more important than the other.
Why does Wildcat use MORE oil than the competitions fuels? Oil is the life blood of the engine. It cools, lubricates, seals, and acts as a binder. The higher oil content actually acts to produce more power. This is accomplished by better sealing of the engine, this in turn builds superior compression. The higher oil content better removes the heat via the heat higher heat capacitance of the degummed racing castor Wildcat uses in our fuels.
Why are some car fuels priced so high, are these better fuels? No, the higher price usually reflects paying for simply the "NAME" and the price reflects what those companies have to charge to support their sponsored drivers. Remember, when you see the big name sponsored guys your paying for their ride.
Why do some fuels burn dirty leaving a nasty brown goo behind? This is due to the quality of the castor used. Standard grades such as Bakers AA and AAA have natural resins in them, these are the components that leave the brown varnish and goo behind after combustion. Wildcat uses the highest quality (and more expensive) Klotz BeNol Degummed Racing Castor in which the harmful resins are removed which reduces the carboning, varnish, and glazing. This process also increases the film strength and load carrying capacity of the oil by over 25% thus providing better protection for your engine. One great feature of Wildcat Fuels is their clean burning performance.
I have been very picky about my fuels and I truly think wildcat has a good package going. But thats just me. I think byrons is also a good fuel. Both of them list their nitro ratings and so forth. They use very high quality products which produce the results you see.