Quite Possibly The Greatest Seagull Race in the World

[The Tinker]

You could do it like an after-market cylinder head I saw once it had interchangeable combustion chambers. I have thought the idea might help with the 102

[Rex NZ]

The Tinker

Brilliant! That could be a winning idea.

Thinking about a square block procedure here;
* take a standard piston
* use epoxy to make a negative/mould of the deflector crown
* cast insert & m/c finish
* maybe fusion weld the insert to the head for max heat transfer

This is is best idea I've seen so far. All very practical & based on standard parts. I can see water cooling being introduced at some point with the insert.

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I've been giving the idea of the entire Waikato river some more idle thought. I'm thinking about how we did the Clutha over 4x days. Trying to draw from that experience. The logistics were huge. Weather, road crews, making repairs, setting up camp, re-fuelling, changing gearbox oil daily & the like. Too much to handle for some.

Here's some ideas for discussion;
* could commence at turangi. Or even upstream in one of the feeder tributaries. Maybe halfway up the tongariro river
* Maybe we break the journey up into say 5x legs over say 5x months. Maybe more legs
* Oct ~ Sat tongariro / taupo / huka
* Nov ~ Sat aratiatia / ohakuri
* Jan ~ Sat maraetai / mangakino Sun morn ataimuri ~ (bit of reverse order here)
* Dec ~ Sat whakamaru (bit of reverse order here)
* Feb ~ Sat arapuni ~ Sun karapiro (might get a long weekend for waitangi)
* Easter/Mar ~ karapiro / rangariri / port waikato existing 2x day event
* could do each leg on say first weekend of the month. If weather is bad, then defer to the next weekend, & so on.
* not keen on doing the huka falls cutting. LOL. Link for everybody here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Huka_Falls.jpg
* need input from locals with a bit of useful local knowledge for each leg, campsites & launching
* total distance would likely exceed 500km! There's one for the record books
* Difficuilt for many people to take a week off. Easier for people to make weekend trips. Gives people time to make repairs/improvements & the like
* Some people would only be interested in some legs & not others. Logistics would have alot to do with this

google earth map link for everybody here
http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&sourc ... River&z=12

Needs a bit of discussion & planning before we undertake anything.

Rex

[The Tinker]

There is only one major snag after Aratitia dam, Fall James rapids after that most of river should be ok. Maybe chartering a plane for a couple of hours from Taupo to recon river would be the go.
It is possible to make inserts so head holds them in so they can be interchangeable.