A couple of things regarding combustors on F-4 Phantoms (J79 engines) and Mig-29 (RD-33 engines):
The J79 engine used a 10 cannular combustor system.
The RD-33 used an annular combustor system.
The early GE J79 engines used a longer combustor "can" and dual orifice pressure atomizing fuel nozzles, the nozzles had a single fuel inlet and an external fuel flow dividing valve. Starting with the GE J79-17C engine, the fuel nozzle tip was changed to provide air blast atomization to improve fuel/air mixing. The new fuel nozzle was made longer to compensate for a shorter "can" length that was also developed. The new fuel nozzle was quite complex as it involved the addition of eight radial low pressure secondary fuel distributers. This change was known as "Low Smoke - Long Life Combustor" and it was an improvement for sure.
I was with a team of engineers that visited all the important Soviet jet engine plants just as the Soviet Union was dissolving. We were looking for advanced Russian technology knowhow, something better than what we were doing at the time. I had an opportunity during this visit to see a RD33 engine with all the parts laid out on tables for our review. The engine was a basic copy of an F404 engine including the HP turbine blade cooling methodology. However, there was a significant difference and that was the manufacturing ability to produce the wanted component designs. This is where the early "smokey" RD33 engines came up short. There wasn't the manufacturing capability to produce the sophisticated type of parts (fuel nozzles) that was developed and being used in the Western world. We could see that throughout the RD33 engine, they had the right engineering but not the manufacturing capability. So the Chief Designer is covering for the manufacturing shortcomings.
