N201MKTurbo

I cruise LOP. When I descend I leave the mixture where it was. I know I can go to full throttle at that mixture setting without issue. Full throttle while LOP is plenty of power to go around. This procedure doesn’t apply to all engines. Just to the 35 setups like mine out there.

The rudder balance has nothing to do with your plane flying straight. That is a rigging issue. Rudder balance has to do with flutter margins. Which won’t have any effect on flying qualities until it starts happening.

I had you confused with 5he OP.

That’s fine, but if you remove weight from the rudder, you should check the balance. The balance procedure is in the service manual.

So, you have the original M20F oil cooler which is installed with the long axis vertical, but you moved it behind cylinder 4 like a 201. Now it has its long axis horizontal. You might benefit from changing to a 201 oil cooler which is designed to be mounted horizontally with both connections on the same side.

I would check the rudder balance after removing the servo. You should be fine with the cover patch.

Are your oil cooler lines hooked up correctly? It should go in the bottom and out the top.

I just read an article where they took a blown racing engine and tuned it for max HP with leaded race gas and then tuned it for E85. I am assuming the race gas is similar to 100LL. They got a few percent more HP with E85. They attributed it to the cooling effect of vaporizing the E85. It was a carb engine. It seems that E85 won’t work as a drop in replacement in our engines. Our engines would need the fuel flows increased. This is an easy mod, but you won’t be able to switch back and forth between E85 and 100LL. Flex fuel cars have electronic fuel injection systems that adjust the mixture according to what you put in your tank.

I read a book once that was published in the late 1920s about gasoline. Nothing they are talking about today wasn’t in that book. So, thinking that some magic fuel will be discovered is crazy. Would our engines run on E85? Sure they would, but E85 has about 80% of the energy of 100LL, so you would lose a lot of range. And E85 has its own material compatibility issues. 100LL = 112530 BTU/gal E85 = 88258 BTU/gal If it takes 16 GPH to make 200HP with 100LL, it will take 20.4 GPH to make 200HP with E85.

After all my recent magneto weirdness, now my engine is running relatively cool. I cannot explained it. But this weekend I flew to Bullhead City and my CHTs were running under 350 in cruise with fairly high fuel flows LOP. Anyway, my oil temp was about 220 in climb and 195 in cruise.

I had to fix that on my old M20F. I’m not sure when it happened.

Just to expand on what @EricJ said. The heat rarely does any damage. The UV from the sun is what kills everything.

You could use an IR thermometer or thermocouple to see if your oil cooler is getting hot. If you have access to an IR camera, you can see if all the channels are working.

Most I see look way worse than that one.

It is possible your Vernatherm seat needs to be cleaned up. The old one could have warn into the warn seat. I did mine once on my old M20F and it improved the oil temp. I knew the owner of the local engine shop and he loaned me the tool. It took about two minutes to do it after the Vernatherm was out. Like most Lycoming tools, If you go to buy one, it will cost like $5000. https://www.lycoming.com/sites/default/files/attachments/SI1316A%20Bypass%20Valve%20Seat%2C%20Oil%20Cooler%2C%20Repair%20of.pdf https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/eppages/lycomingtools_07-17473.php

Actually, I pushed it in and held the orifice and tapped the pin on a wooden block. I wouldn’t hurt his stuff.

He has done the last few mags I have had done. They came back in good shape for a very fair price.

All FARs are written in blood. I expect some new regs to come down from this.

I have a friend Lori who was in my old speed skating club. She was a serious competitor. After 9/11 she was mad and joined the Army. She was almost 30 years old at the time. She trained like crazy before going to basic training. She was crazy buff right before she left. We emailed a bit while she was training. She said she finished all the running and hiking ahead of all the guys. If anybody would have been carrying anybody else’s stuff, it would be her. Last I heard she had been to Afghanistan 5 times. She told me the story of her first deployment. They didn’t have separate tents or facilities and her group was coed. They did everything together sleep, eat dress and use the latrine all coed. She said there were no issues. If someone would have tried something with her, she would have kicked their ass. About a month later some officer came by and insisted they have separate tents and facilities. She said there were more problems being separate. She also told me the story about her rifle. She said about every other month some officer would say either all the women must carry a rifle or cannot carry a rifle. She said whenever she got into a HUMVEE or a helicopter, somebody would hand her a rifle. She ended up running the post office for the Army in Afghanistan. She told me once that she knew more about where everybody was deployed than the generals did. She told me once she was really pissed because the bad guys were shelling her base and blew up the new Pizza Hut.

I would pull the handle just a little bit with the latch in the emergency position. It may have got jammed trying to use the motor to raise them with the latch in the wrong position.

That’s an awful lot for a$10 spring.

Thanks for the story. It sounds like you did the right thing. You knew there was no ice below and behind you and you immediately turned there. That’s what you have to do. Did you notice the OATs? If ATC tried to send me to altitudes with ice, I would tell them I was unable.

If there are no cracks, I would let it go. If the holes are ovaled, it is most likely from improper installation. If you need a new spinner. it is a McCauley part. I would look for a used one too. There are a few spinner shops that will weld them.

I got a tire grinding disk from JEGS that fit in my 4" grinder. I jacked the plane and set on the ground in front of the wheels and ran the grinder back and forth across the face of the tire. It is kind of like running a floor polisher, you steer it by which quadrant you put pressure on. if you put pressure on the right side of the grinder it would spin the wheel towards you and if you put pressure on the left side of the grinder it would slow it down and reverse direction. It doesn't take long to get the hang of it and you can control the wheel speed with precision. It took about 20 minutes per tire to remove 1/4 inch of rubber. It made an awful mess, but it was dry rubber dust and it swept up easy enough. BTW, I still have those tires on the plane. It appears they will last forever. https://www.jegs.com/i/Allstar-Performance/049/ALL44181/10002/-1 Wow, that's a big picture.