Speaking of decoking, I've got to relate an old decoking story -
One of the classic motorcycle mags recently reprinted a bunch
of articles from the 30's or thereabouts, when, as mentioned, decoking
(as well as 4:1 compression) was an everyday occurrence. Well, some guy
wrote into the magazines help column with a question, paraphrased here:
"After too frequent decokings of my 1932 Spagthorpe Whippet a friend
advised me of a practice to eliminate the decoking process - the
placing of a ball bearing in the combustion chamber, so its ricocheting
around the combustion chamber during normal use will prevent the buildup
of carbon on the piston and head. I removed the head after a few hundred
miles of operation and the head was dented and the piston was pretty
fairly ruined.
Perhaps I didn't use a large enough bearing?"
I will present a monogrammed bent pushrod to anyone who can convincingly
pass this bit of advice on to a novice mechanic.
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