Gather 'round kiddies

Now I need a song AND a hero costume!

Yes, and I think between all us RAMVA folks we can come up with both. Suggestions, folks?

The costume will definately include lederhosen.

Wait a minute. I don't like the sound of this at all.

You are bold, BH.

I figured that the wood would be converted to ash pretty quickly - a puff of cedar wood smoke from the exhaust (No.2 Ticonderoga). The pencil "lead" -- graphite and clay: a grinding compound? Or a lubricant? Not enough to worry about, I expect anyway. There wasn't much in the way of an eraser left. A puff of rubbery stink to counter the more pleasant cedar smell. It was indeed the bit of brass that worried me. But it is a soft metal, it is thin, and there isn't much of it there.

I'm as bold as you. I think. But, um, you're not on any medication are you? Are you on drugs? Do you have a mental disorder? Have you ever been in jail?

If you answer "yes" to two or more of these I'll reconsider my opinion. Otherwise, fire it up!

Question for the group:

What else might we put down the plug hole and burn up?

You will try but you will be *unable* to keep yourself from clicking ALL of these links...

Can you actually see the piece of pencil down in there? I wonder if you could vacuum it out. Or if you could fish it out with a piece of wire with some gum on it or something. Or with one of those little nerdy computer parts retriever tools with the three little claws.

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Two mistakes in a row won't do your stats any good.

How do you know the metal is brass? Odds are, it's brass-plated steel. And even if it IS brass, it is more than enough to ruin your exhaust valve. You've only got about three-tenths of an inch of lift and the head of the valve is about an eighth. Odds are, the metal will end up blocking the valve off the seat.

Why don't you put some rubber cement on a soda straw and simply fish out the broken piece? Gravity and geometry are on your side, assuming you are at or near TDC on the compression stroke. (Rubber cement IS combustable, as is a plastic soda straw.)

-Bob Hoover

Ok, that's it. You know nothing of heroic togs. I'm picking my own costume. I'm partial to these three.

Not bad, but ADMIT IT... You clicked on ALL of those images, didn't you? :-)

Engine's presently in the bus. Would need a head the size of a tennis ball and a longer neck than I have to look down the plug hole. Am pulling the engine tomorrow unless, through some magic, the valves can be untightened and compression happens. Then I may attempt to start engine -- depending on whether I feel bold enough to munch up the pencil in there.

I've been wondering where those three-claw grabber things come from.

Well after you did what you did I just thought... ;-)

I'm hitting zero right now. Can't go negative!!!!

100% of the pencils I got over here are non-magnetic. That's not to say that the one in the engine isn't steel, though it is yellow metal.

Bob, when you're right, you're right.

Hmmm... me: 0% Bob: 100%

(Pauses to think about that simple fact.)

Okay, I'm sold. No power until part is removed.

Yup, am near the top. Anyone got a cutaway drawing slicing through the piston/head so I can get a sense of the relationship between the plug hole and the cylinder? Otherwise I'll end up filling the damn thing with blobs of rubber cement if I don't know where to aim the business end of the straw. Permanently glue the pencil in place.

Which is what I should have used instead of a frickin' pencil to feel the piston come up to TDC.

Hey! I resemble that remark!

Um.

Yeah.

brass-plated steel.

That's not to say

yellow metal.

(See TOP POST)

This is a picture of the head (upside down). As you see, there is not much room in the head. The cylinder mates the shiny surface and the piston is flat headed (approx. anyway). The piston leaves some room (like 2 centimeters) in TDC position between the head and piston=20 top.