Greetings All:

Great advice coming here. It takes time for each of you to peck this stuff out on the computer keyboard, so your generosity really shows!

Tonight I reassembled the engine without removing the contra-piston as suggested. The tight nature of its fit still shows, but you've all wisely convinced me that this is probably for the best. Bravo! I did use a depth gauge to set it at about a fifteen to one compression ratio for starting (some Algebra came in handy to reverse calculate the ratio suggested by motorboy in another thread). With the proper fuel and fuel line on hand, all that's needed is some warm weather and I'll have it on the outdoor test stand in short order. Will get back to this thread then and provide a progress report.

Again, thank-you all!