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I don't think the question is if tight squish helps but rather how much.
Quoting from http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/squishcalc1.html (these guys build land speed record-setting Harley engines):
"It's a simple fact: The closer the flat of the piston to the flat of the combustion chamber, the more power you will make. In a race engine with all the factors considered you practically want the two surfaces touching one another. In F1 they machine each piston individually even for the spark plug relief."
Quoting from http://tinyurl.com/ojs46g:
"Most conventional ports do induce a very small amount of swirl, but this is not important as far as generating much turbulence. Rather, the biggest benefit is obtained by reducing the squish band to it's safe minimum (about 0.020-0.040 in, depending on the particular engine used). This will have a far greater effect on increasing the turbulence in the combustion chamber than any other modification."
And from the next paragraph:
"It is important to realize the two important functions of reducing the squish band clearance: (a) to enhance turbulence due to rapid ingestion of gas into the combustion chamber, hence increasing the burning rate of the mixture and (b) to reduce the volume of the unburned gas in the boundary layer of cool gas near the piston top and cylinder head surfaces. Typically, gas trapped in the squish area doesn't burn, even if the squish band clearance is relatively large. The cooling effects of the large surface-area-to-volume ratio of this region will prevent any ignition of the fuel-air mix therein, even if the squish band clearance is rather large. Hence any gas caught in the squish band will not be burned near TDC when it does the most good, but later during the combustion process when one cannot extract as much work from the late-burning gases. The amount of gas trapped in the squish band can actually be a substantially greater amount than just the relative volume of the squish band because the pressure wave from the ignition process literally crams a lot of the unburned gas into crevice areas like the squish band. Reducing the squish band clearance will decrease the amount of unburned gas substantially, leading to more complete and faster combustion, lower emissions and improved power."
My machinist, Ed Trihey, has built scores of record-setting engines (he's mostly known in boat racing circles, but also has had much success with cars), and he's never once said to me, "Don't run the clearance that tight or you'll make less power."
YMMV...
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