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On my way out to Oshkosh this year from eastern Pennsylvania, my engine started running a little rough. I initially thought it might be my leaning technique, but the slight roughness persisted. I finally did an inflight mag check and found that my left mag was dead. Long story short, I landed at AGC, rented a car, drove to Oshkosh, and had the Slick 4372 replaced with a SureFly which I bought from Spruce at Airventure and had overnighted to the A&P at AGC. The engine is a IO360-A3B6. In the interest of simplifying the away from home installation, I did not have the manifold pressure line installed. The timing is fixed at 20 degrees BTDC. So far, so good, but my CHTs are running higher even with the fixed timing. I can't get close to POH 75% power numbers without the CHTs going over 400 degrees. I have to be either way rich, or way lean. I'll play around with that in the coming colder months. Two questions: My Slick 4372 only had about 400 hours on it since new. I bought the factory rebuilt IO360 A3B6 with the new mags in late 2019. Has anyone else experienced premature Slick failures? I talked to two other guys just on my airport alone that have. One guy had two failures! Both with lower time mags than what mine were! And my other question is: Is anyone using Tempest EAREM37HE plugs with their SureFly SIMs? Those plugs were originally developed for Electroair, but SureFly will tell you that they're OK to use if "your engine is approved for them". Frustrating stuff. I was planning to replace the Slick 4372 at 500 hours anyway. But not at the beginning of a trip, away from the home field at 400 hours. Thanks, John

So I have a ‘86 252 that has had more than its fair share of magneto issues, the latest being a failure of a 40-hr (Slick......) mag. The AMT asked if I’d thought about having a vent tube put in to keep the mag temps down. He said the failure mode (secondary coil) suggested damage from chronically high temps. I’ve never noted anyone disussing this issue on any model Mooney. Have I just been living in a bubble? Has anyone else had a chronic mag problem?