Some may remember the pix of my Iridium spark plugs that showed both cyl # 3 plug blackened by burnt oil (not fouled) while the other 6 plugs were a nice grayish tan color.  Well, the cylinder was pulled and the following noted:

 

1. The piston ring gaps were just inside the limit, but the piston sides above the bottom ring contained an awful lot of burnt oil.

 

2. 2 metal flakes were pounded into the piston skirt and the resulting bumps burnished nicely.

 

3. The ECI "plasma" ring face exfoliated 2 rectangular particles (1.5mm x 3mm x a smidge deep) that matched item 2 above.

 

4. The exhaust valve had some wobble to it and the guide was just out of specs.

 

ECI was kind enough to warranty replace the piston and rings after commenting something like "I thought we had seen the end of that problem...", and that after only 270 engine hours.

 

Everything is back together, just waiting for the weather to lift so I can test run the thing with the LSE crank sensor.