Head Squish Article Questions

[FFRDave]

Will I need a strap wrench and a 20 foot long cheater ?

I made sure the piston was coming up (compression stroke) when I placed the solder on. Then I carefully moved the kicker until it stopped. Then I applied pressure with my foot on the kicker until it completed the stroke through TDC.

After TDC, the piston did rise and fall in the cylinder a couple times. I was a little worried about a chunk of solder being sheared off in the cylinder ports. I think I lucked out because I measured the length of each of my solder strands and compared to the total diameter of my cylinder. The solder strands were all pretty close in length. I was using .125" solder. I think I may want to try the thinner 0.093", as this may bind less.

The tech artical should probably suggest the preferred engine rotation method in order to help the clueless (like me) who try to do this measurement.