Ill goahead and explain what killed it, Ill post it in WHITE font, so if you want to know, Highlight below to find out, if you dont want to know, dont highlite, or quote this post.
Being an auger, its not run at part throttle, they put it in the ground, wide open for 10-15 seconds at HIGH load...then lift it out of the hole @ idle, then drop it onto the ground 2 steps away, full throttle, full load....over and over. The engine never gets any time to lose the built up heat between holes. Your engine will always make heat...but when you run wide open, it makes the most heat, when you run it under high load, the cooling fan spins slower, and the engine heats up faster. The piston absorbs heat and cant get rid of it fast enough, and the hottest part of the piston, the area at the exhaust port...melts. To remedy this, they should either run it at wide open at all times, to allow it to blow off heat between holes, or let it idle longer between holes. Basically, long story short...they are overheating it. If you can imagine, if you went to a drag strip, took a 1/4 mile run...drove back around the track to the start again, made another run, over and over...the engine would be able to lose the heat that was soaked into it, between runs. However if you made 1/4 mile runs, turned around at the end of the track, and made a 1/4 mile run back, over and over..the engine would eventually overheat because you are adding heat faster than it can be lost. With air cooled engines, they are reliant on either engine speed (more air) or more time (at idle) to lose heat that soaks into the piston, crank, block, head...They are digging 6000 holes, probably 4 a minute...doesnt take long to overheat an engine. Im going to suggest that they do a 3 man rotation..for a little more time between holes, as well as a colder plug...
