I am a new owner looking for advice on oil temperatures. I've read a number of threads on this, but can't find anything that addresses cold oil directly or quite answers my question.
I have an IO-540 Skybolt with the oil cooler mounted up front (no duct). It takes a few minutes of running on the ground to get the oil up to 100 degrees for takeoff, and will run at 140 or so cruising at altitude. On a hot day down by the ground it will get up over 180, and I can usually get it up over 180 doing aerobatics, but I have never seen it over 200 degrees.
Do I need to look at reducing the airflow through the cooler and bringing the temp up or is it OK as long as it gets over 180 at some point during the flight? If someone knows of a thread discussing this can you include a link?
One more note - I do plan to test the gauge and probe this weekend just to make sure it's not a bad indication.
I have an IO-540 Skybolt with the oil cooler mounted up front (no duct). It takes a few minutes of running on the ground to get the oil up to 100 degrees for takeoff, and will run at 140 or so cruising at altitude. On a hot day down by the ground it will get up over 180, and I can usually get it up over 180 doing aerobatics, but I have never seen it over 200 degrees.
Do I need to look at reducing the airflow through the cooler and bringing the temp up or is it OK as long as it gets over 180 at some point during the flight? If someone knows of a thread discussing this can you include a link?
One more note - I do plan to test the gauge and probe this weekend just to make sure it's not a bad indication.
