Just come across "Magician`s" comments regarding The Shackleton Song (Jun 06).   Folklore I am afraid!   As a matter of accuracy, the Shack had Griffon engines, not Merlins.    As for oily black smoke when the engines were put through the 90% gate to get full power - I doubt it.   Firstly, with 2500 hours as a "Siggy" on the beasts, I don`t recall any throttle gate limiting the engines to 90%. Anyway, during my lengthy sojourn in The Kipper Fleet, I spent many an hour languishing in the beam for take-off, idly watching the engines. The aircraft was relatively underpowered, and 100% power was always used to get the Shack airborne. Simply, there was never any black, oily smoke at max power. Incidently, at night, one could see the exhaust manifolds glowing red-hot - more than enough to burn off any oil that might possibly have escaped.