diff --git a/Drupal_Apache_Solr_Service.php b/Drupal_Apache_Solr_Service.php
index 980b0d2..c49b32a 100644
--- a/Drupal_Apache_Solr_Service.php
+++ b/Drupal_Apache_Solr_Service.php
@@ -247,7 +247,7 @@ class DrupalApacheSolrService implements DrupalApacheSolrServiceInterface {
     return $this->luke[$num_terms];
   }
 
-  protected function getSolrVersion() {
+  public function getSolrVersion() {
     $system_info = $this->getSystemInfo();
     // Get our solr version number
     if (isset($system_info->lucene->{'solr-spec-version'})) {
diff --git a/apachesolr_search.module b/apachesolr_search.module
index cbb2a4a..c02ebfd 100644
--- a/apachesolr_search.module
+++ b/apachesolr_search.module
@@ -1204,7 +1204,16 @@ function apachesolr_search_basic_params(DrupalSolrQueryInterface $query = NULL)
         'is_uid',
         'tos_name',
       ),
+    'mm' => 1,
     'rows' => 10,
+    'pf' => 'content^2.0',
+    'ps' => 15,
+    'hl' => 'true',
+    'hl.fl' => 'content',
+    'hl.snippets' => 3,
+    'hl.mergeContigious' => 'true',
+    'f.content.hl.alternateField' => 'teaser',
+    'f.content.hl.maxAlternateFieldLength' => 256,
   );
   if ($query) {
     $query->addParams($params);
diff --git a/tests/solr_index_and_search.test b/tests/solr_index_and_search.test
index 714a6d1..33c2cb3 100755
--- a/tests/solr_index_and_search.test
+++ b/tests/solr_index_and_search.test
@@ -15,31 +15,47 @@ abstract class AbstractDrupalSolrOnlineWebTestCase extends DrupalWebTestCase {
   }
 
   function setUpSolr() {
-    $patterns = func_get_args();
-
     // Load the default server.
     $env_id = apachesolr_default_environment();
     $environment = apachesolr_environment_load($env_id);
+    $this->base_solr_url = $environment['url'];
+
     // Because we are in a clean environment, this will always be the default
     // http://localhost:8983/solr
-    $this->core_admin_url = "{$environment['url']}/admin/cores";
+    $this->core_admin_url = "{$this->base_solr_url}/admin/cores";
 
     // The core admin url will give a valid response if the
     // Solr server is running locally.
     if ($this->coreAdminAvailable()) {
+
       // We will use a core named after the simpletest prefix.
       $environment['url'] .= '/' . $this->databasePrefix;
-      $filesdir = file_directory_path();
 
+      $filesdir = file_directory_temp();
       // Create our Solr core directory.
-      mkdir("$filesdir/solr", 0777, TRUE);
-      mkdir("$filesdir/solr/conf");
-
+      drupal_mkdir("{$filesdir}/solr", 0777, TRUE);
       // Our temporary core is located here.
-      $instancedir = realpath("$filesdir/solr");
+      $instancedir = realpath($filesdir . "/solr");
+
+      // use the Solr version confs where appropriate.
+      $version = $this->getSolrVersion();
+      if (isset($version) && $version == 3) {
+        $conf_path = dirname(__FILE__) . '/../solr-conf/solr-3.x/*';
+      }
+      elseif (isset($version) && $version == 4) {
+        $conf_path = dirname(__FILE__) . '/../solr-conf/solr-4.x/*';
+      }
+      else {
+        $conf_path = dirname(__FILE__) . '/../solr-conf/solr-1.4/*';
+      }
+
+      $patterns = array(
+        $conf_path,
+        dirname(__FILE__) . '/conf/*',
+      );
 
       // Copy all files in solr-conf dir to our temporary solr core.
-      // @todo - use the Solr 3.x conf where appropriate.
+      drupal_mkdir("{$instancedir}/conf", 0777, TRUE);
       foreach ($patterns as $pattern) {
         foreach (glob($pattern) as $conf_file) {
           copy($conf_file, "$instancedir/conf/" . basename($conf_file));
@@ -52,6 +68,10 @@ abstract class AbstractDrupalSolrOnlineWebTestCase extends DrupalWebTestCase {
       // @todo - use solrcore.properties file for 3.x.
       file_put_contents("$instancedir/conf/solrconfig.xml", preg_replace('@<maxTime>[0-9]+</maxTime>@', '<maxTime>1000</maxTime>', $contents));
 
+      // hard chmod -R because it seems drupal dirs are too restricted in a
+      // testing environment
+      system("chmod -R 777 {$instancedir}");
+
       $query['name'] = $this->databasePrefix;
       $query['instanceDir'] = $instancedir;
       $created = $this->coreAdmin('CREATE', $query);
@@ -78,16 +98,32 @@ abstract class AbstractDrupalSolrOnlineWebTestCase extends DrupalWebTestCase {
     return ($result->code == 200 && empty($result->error));
   }
 
+  protected function getSolrVersion() {
+    $status = $this->coreAdmin('STATUS');
+    foreach($status['status'] as $core_id => $core) {
+      $solr = new DrupalApacheSolrService($this->base_solr_url . '/' . $core_id);
+      $version = $solr->getSolrVersion();
+      if (!empty($version)) {
+        return $version;
+      }
+      else {
+        return "1";
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
   /**
    * Helper function to invoke core admin actions.
    */
   protected function coreAdmin($action, $query = array()) {
     $query['action'] = $action;
     $query['wt'] = 'json';
-    $query['indent'] = '1';
-    $this->drupalGet($this->core_admin_url, array('query' => $query));
-    if ($this->assertResponse(200)) {
-      return json_decode($this->drupalGetContent(), TRUE);
+    $url = url($this->core_admin_url, array('query' => $query));
+    $options['timeout'] = 2;
+    $result = drupal_http_request($url, $options);
+
+    if ($result->code == 200) {
+      return json_decode($result->data, TRUE);
     }
     else {
       return FALSE;
@@ -105,8 +141,17 @@ abstract class AbstractDrupalSolrOnlineWebTestCase extends DrupalWebTestCase {
   function tearDown() {
     // Workaround for drupal.org test bot
     if ($this->solr_available) {
-      // Unload the Solr core.
-      $this->coreAdmin('UNLOAD', array('core' => $this->databasePrefix));
+      // Unload the Solr core & delete all files
+      $query = array(
+        'core' => $this->databasePrefix,
+        'deleteIndex' => 'true',
+        'deleteDataDir' => 'true',
+        'deleteInstanceDir' => 'true'
+      );
+      // This is currently broken due to
+      // https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SOLR-3586
+      $this->coreAdmin('UNLOAD', $query);
+
     }
     parent::tearDown();
   }
@@ -119,11 +164,7 @@ class DrupalSolrOnlineWebTestCase extends AbstractDrupalSolrOnlineWebTestCase {
    */
   function setUp() {
     parent::setUp();
-    parent::setUpSolr(
-      // The Solr 1.4 conf will work in both 1.4 and 3.5.
-      dirname(__FILE__) . '/../solr-conf/solr-1.4/*',
-      dirname(__FILE__) . '/conf/*'
-    );
+    parent::setUpSolr();
   }
 }