Looper Shutdown with a rattle noise

[Steplift 72']

Originally Posted by nymack66

Guys,
Why is it the pistons are really loose ? Is this normal ? Is it possible the previous owner installed the wrong set of pistons in a re-bore sleeves?

The pistons should not be "really loose" but they will slighly rock. I had a rattling 86' model 140 looper that still had 125 pounds of cranking compression. It turned out that a series of motors in 86' had carbs that ran the motors too lean, mine was one. In the first 6 months it had lost 400 rpm and sounded terrible. The piston tops and cylinders looked perfect but the lean running had worn the motor out in a couple hundred hours.