Greg,

Hard to say what caused the rod wear. Note that this was not a rod FAILURE, but rod wear. When I did these rods, one, likely this one, turned out with a press fit of the bushing that wasn't as tight as I'd have liked. I have few good measuring tools and do this by feel. This one, I used Loctite red and this is supposed to cure a not so tight fit but here we may have a spun bushing. Tearing it down soon, will get back to you.

About some of the four strokes NOT being true four strokes. Didn't mean much by that, just a comment on some of the things we talked about. Super efficient compared to common two strokes of the past. As in superior fuel atomization, something that can contribute to the use of a thicker BioDiesel fuel. That's kind of where I was going with that.

Wvarn1957,

Yes, I had taken into consideration what you're referring to. I had intended on cutting new bypasses into the case and plugging the old ones as I did in the conversion of a Norvel to rear exhaust for use on a heli and a pipe. See the first picture.

BUT, another problem has revealed itself on closer inspection. What fooled me was that the cylinder is square, but the bolt pattern is rectangular so the only flipping you can do is left to right. In that case, still, in a twin you can have counter-rotating props with inboard cylinders and with the muffler outlet straight down for both. Well, just thinking ahead a bit. I'm mostly 1/2A and am getting a bit saturated. Seeing the potential of the Tanaka has got me thinking likely too big for my britches but don't we all dream, from time to time?

But wait, you've dieselized a Kioritz? Please let us know more and pictures please. How about a submission to YouTube? Low/no ether, yes, that's the point as in needle raced rods may be all we need. Got to dig up that old Webra and see how they did it. As an old bearing man, I know that Torrington makes needle bearings with very thin outer races, these are more like thin tubes with the ends curled in to hold the needles in place. You can get them with cages and also with full complement needles with no cages. So with a brass rod for strength, maybe a rod could be made to hold these bearings on both ends. An idea worth looking into.