Oh man, what a day.

I just got off the phone with Randy Haslam, Tanaka's tech representative. He was most interested in our goings on. As it turns out, I have a rather old engine with good but so last year's technology. Tanaka, like most good companies, don't sit still EVER and their latest engines have improved, multiple porting, better power to weight and various multiple new features that contribute greatly to their desirability as a handheld power plant.

Randy also informs me that many of the so called four stroke, small engines are really hybrids that still use a fuel/oil mix. Only Honda and a few others actually make a TRUE four stroke with an oil sump and the like. So Tanaka has retained the simplicity and superior power to weight of a two stroke but has concentrated on making it super efficient. This along with the catalytic element in their muffler and they are very much meeting anything the new environmental regs can throw at them. All of this is very good and just reinforces my belief that there really aren't any technical issues that can't be overcome.

Speaking of Honda, Randy tells me that they'll be introducing, next year, their first corporate jet. I remember far too many years ago, I owned a Honda 90 motorBIKE and when I heard that Honda was going to make cars, I laughed and thought what, with CHAIN DRIVE?? Nope, not laughing now.

So, we have a very good, versatile, homebrew. Now, we might just have a unique and very durable diesel conversion that'll stand up to anything we can throw at it. My poor, abused little .15 has got bunches of slop in the rod now. So much so that I couldn't get enough compression for a start yesterday. One reason I took a little side trip to glow. Another rebuild is in the works. Sure wish I could stuff in a needle bearing. Yes, I've looked into it, the .15 no, but maybe the .40,,, down the road some. That Webra .60 I mentioned had a needle bearing at the top and when I retired it, the wear was in the piston but not the rod. The solution there would be to make that part a press fit. Dare we say bullet proof rod? So all those low/no oil mixes have taken their toll. Ah well, it was fun seeing how far we could go. Stewart's high oil blends seem like a right thing to do for our current engines. Neat.

++++++++++++++++++

Oh, and by the way, Tanaka wasn't the one,, making an outboard that ran on kerosene.