I'm just doing exactly what you did: today I started to make another piston, because I suspect that most of the problems are there... lack of compression
To create tapered cylinder: Piston create tapered piston when the piston is lapped into the cylinder at final stage.
To test fit is correct: Dry piston/cylinder ---> tight to enter into cylinder. Oiled piston/ cylinder ---> The piston is loose fit in BDC cylinder and tight in TDC.
Lets take a look at a typical lapping job - that of producing a fine finished bore and piston for an IC engine. In fact, piston and bore are both lapped in separate operations (NOT both together). All of these operations will be carried out in the lathe (and I need hardly mention the importance of keeping lapping compounds off the machine, particularly the chuck and slideways). For the bore an expanding lap is ideal, and this should be some 3-4 times the total length of the bore. The first grade of abrasive would be mixed with light machine oil (10W or lighter) and liberally coated on the inside of the workpiece. Similarly, the slurry would be added to the outside (and inside assuming it is of the ventilated type) of the lap. The lathe would be started at about 300rpm (for a nominal 1" bore) and the lap passed rapidly through the bore, keeping it moving back and forth without it coming out the bore. How to hold the lap? well, perhaps the best way is with a 'floating' tailstock holder, and failing this holding with the hand is a method as good as any. Be careful when holding the lap by hand as it's possible it may jam, hold it lightly and expect the unexpected. Remember also that unless the lap is maintained dead parallel with the bore (an almost impossible task) it will tend to bell-mouth the bore a little - hence the reason for making the work a little longer than finished size and trimming to length later. When the inside of the bore has achieved an all-over grey appearance, with the fine scratches appearing even and criss-crossing both ways, and with no evidence of any deeper scratches (as might be left by the reamer) it's time to move onto the next finer grade. The work will have to be removed from the chuck to clean it properly, and this should be done with clean paraffin oil followed by hot soapy water. The same procedure applies to the lap and all traces of the abrasive must be removed. The process continues until you reach the 'flour' grade of abrasive by which time the finish on the workpiece should be very fine indeed. A final polished finish, should this be deemed necessary, can be achieved using metal polish (diluted Autosol, or some liquid chrome cleaner). The lap should be a separate 'finishing' lap so there is no chance of contamination with the coarser grades of abrasive which might be embedded in the main lap. The piston is treated in a similar way except of course the lap is female. Work will continue with the coarse abrasive until (using the un-trimmed bore as a gauge) the piston will not *quite* enter the bore. At this stage finer grade abrasives are used and work continues until the piston will just enter the bore tightly. At this stage, it is usual to finish mating the two parts by using metal polish and briefly using the piston to lap the bore directly. Great care needs be taken but this method ensures that the fit is good for the entire length of the bore.
About fuel, I had never had problem to use diesel from gas station in model diesel engine. The model diesel engine is not self igniting diesel by heat of compression. Also it is ether who is self ignited by heat of compression and then the main fuel such as diesel, kerosene, lamp oil or Jet-A1 will be ignited by ether in same time. Ether has self ignition about 188 degree celsious/370.4 Fahrenheit while the main fuel has high self ignition about 250 celsius/482 Fahrenheit.
