wrote:

Interesting notes about temps and cowl flaps. As it turns out, I didn't
get to do my approaches yesterday in the Cutlass because it's in the
shop. Everyone has been noting how the oil temp has been at the very
high end of the green most of the time, and the pane pretty much needs
to be flown with the cowl flaps open, and they finally decided to do
something about it. Of course, I don't know what "something" is if this
airplane is just known to run hot.

So far they've changed the oil cooler and now have decided to change
the oil temp sensor, but no change.

They need to be concentrating on the baffles and baffle seals. Even a small
leak can make a big difference in cooling eficiency.

I've spent considerable effort making sure the baffle seals are perfect,
trying to get the CHT's to stay below 380 in cruise (I have a JPI engine
monitor) with the cowl flaps closed. That helped, but I still can't close
the cowl flaps all the way unless the OAT is well below standard.

The CHT, by the way, seems to stay quite comfortably in the green.

Yes, but the trouble is Cessna's idea of what's an ok CHT is considerably
higher than Lycoming's.

--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM