MoGas Long Term Test: 5000 gallons and counting...

On Tue, 17 May 2005 13:15:46 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

When you think about it for a minute Jay, it makes sense that the
cylinderheads cannot overheat when running lean of peak: There isn't
enough fuel in the mixture to overheat them.

???

I can easily get my EGTs over 1600 degrees, and my CHTs near (or over) 400
degrees by over-leaning. At some temperature (and I don't know what it is)
doesn't aluminum start to weaken?

Jay, have you read Deakin's article entitled "Mixture Magic"? If not,
find it here and read it through and through.

http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/182084-1.html

He also wrote four follow up columns entitled: "Where should I run my
engine" parts 1 through 4 in which he spells out in minute detail how
to adjust your prop and mixture for most efficient/safe flight on the
ground, in climb, at cruise and descending.

But if you look at the temperature chart (produced by Continental) and
what happens to the cylinderhead temps along with the EGT's as you
lean from full rich, you'll see two peaked curves BUT, and this is a
big but, **they don't peak together**.

The curves starts as low as they're going to be when the mixture is
full rich, and begin rising immediatly as you begin leaning out.

As the mixture reaches the stoichiometricly correct ratio, the engine
is producing the absolute maximum power it's capable of making (at
that altitude). Guess what? The maximum power and the hottest
cylinderhead temperatures occur at exactly the same time.

But at that point, the EGT's are still rising and will continue to
rise as you continue to lean, but the cylinderhead temps now start
DOWN as you lean below the peak temperature. Power also starts
dropping off as you continue to lean.

You really need to read the above article to get the proper
understanding because it takes pictures and charts to really explain
it and he has them all in this article.

But the point is, the charts show that as you continue to lean (in the
cruise condition), once you get the mixture to the point where it is
PAST PEAK, the temperatures begin to fall off. This is literally
because the mixture isn't good enough to produce the kind of heat and
pressure it can when the mixture is ideal. Less heat in the
combustion chamber, less heat to the cylinderheads. It's actually
more complicated than that but I'll let Mr. Deakin's words explain,
read the article.

When you say "but my temps go up when I lean", that's true ONLY while
the mixture is RICH OF PEAK. When you lean past that point, continued
leaning reduces engine temps for several reasons. Look at the chart,
it's Continental's own chart and it does not lie: Continued leaning
past the peak cylinderhead temperatures produces lower temperatures.
As Deakin points out, this chart works for all spark ignition four
stroke cycle engines regardless power output. Lean out the mixture
and that's what the engine temps will do.

It doesn't appear that you have leaned past peak in your adjustment of
the mixture, till now. You've approached peak, from the rich side of
the chart, but not below it. Your description of the temps you've
seen and your fuel burn tell us that.

It's important to understand that this technique produces the fastest
cruise for the least amount of fuel burned. You can set your engine
for a faster cruise but you'll burn more fuel. You can also set your
engine for longest range, but you'll be going very slowly.

Please note, for all who are reading this, Deakin does not believe
it's advisable to use this technique (LOP operation) without having
the necessary guages to monitor ALL the cylinder temps at once.

But Jay, you have the JPI guage that should allow you to at least
attempt to run the engine lean of peak, should you so desire.

Corky Scott

In rec.aviation.owning George Patterson wrote:
: wrote:
:
: The EGT is
: much more important, and running at or below 400 in cruise is considered acceptable.

: I'm sure you meant "CHT" in that sentence.

Ooops... my bad. PEBKAC
-Cory

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

In rec.aviation.owning Corky Scott wrote:
: It doesn't appear that you have leaned past peak in your adjustment of
: the mixture, till now. You've approached peak, from the rich side of
: the chart, but not below it. Your description of the temps you've
: seen and your fuel burn tell us that.

: It's important to understand that this technique produces the fastest
: cruise for the least amount of fuel burned. You can set your engine
: for a faster cruise but you'll burn more fuel. You can also set your
: engine for longest range, but you'll be going very slowly.

: Please note, for all who are reading this, Deakin does not believe
: it's advisable to use this technique (LOP operation) without having
: the necessary guages to monitor ALL the cylinder temps at once.

: But Jay, you have the JPI guage that should allow you to at least
: attempt to run the engine lean of peak, should you so desire.

Instrumentation is the important key. If you look through the Lycoming FUD,
they say LOP is bad not because it's inherently flawed, just that most pilots are too
stupid to be able to do it safely and their planes aren't equipped. Remembering that
each cylinder is really its own entity as far as operation goes, individual
measurements are definately necessary. So long as each one is within the safe zone of
CHT (400 in cruise), you should be fine at *ANY* mixture setting provided you're
below 75% power.

Unfortunately, you may be screwed before you even get going if the fuel
distribution is really bad on the O-540. I would set up a nice 60-65% cruise power
and lean the bejeepers out of it until it definately runs rough... maybe even more.
Watch where each jug peaks and see how mismatched they are. Not where they all get to
the same temp... just where each one starts to go back down again. On my O-360, I can
lean it to where the leanest cylinder is LOP, and the richest cylinder is at peak.
Since they're all running at a cooler CHT than running 50 ROP, it's still safe so long
as I'm at 75% or less. For a bit of "buffer zone" (especially since I run cargas),
I'll generally limit the power to 65-70%. My PA28 airframe is really starting to hit
the wall at 115 KTS or so anyway, so the additional 10% only buys 5 kts or so.

-Cory
--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************