What exactly is a "boggie pilot?"
radial engines are your forte - so will not comment.
They are. But then so are horizontally opposed lycomings, continentals, franklins, etc, too. Garrrett/honeywell turboprops, pratt & whitney turboprops, allison turboprops, and garrett/honewell, GE, and pratt turbojets, too...
This isn't really relevant to preflighting a powerplant, per the original poster's request. Perhaps you might stay on track.