EGT temps during climbout, Low fuel burn?

[hecilopter]

My -7A has a 180 HP XP-360 carbureted, Hartzell blended airfoil combination. At present, I am only monitoring the #3 cylinder for CHT and EGT. I am seeing about 1300 degrees on the EGT, 350-375 degrees on the CHT during full power, 2700 RPM, full rich climb out. The EGT seems high to me during climb out as I lean to about 1325 when in cruise. After I pull the power back to 25 inches, 2500 RPM ,the EGT will drop to 1150 - 1200 at full rich and then when at cruise I lean to about 1325 degrees on the EGT. I have checked and the mixture lever on the carburetor goes stop to stop and there is no way to make the carb run richer.

Does this sound in the ballpark or am I too lean on climbout? I am using the standard Van's EGT guage and probe.

Also, as another aside, I am averaging about 8.5 gallons per hour fuel burn (measured from the Hobbs meter). I have refueled 10 or 12 times now and I'm almost always 8.3-8.5 gallons per hour. I run either 25/2500 or 24/2400 almost the entire time I'm flying. While I am excited about this, I can't explain it. Has anyone else seen these low fuel burn numbers?

I have all my fairings on finally and I'm seeing about 201 MPH true at 8000 feet density altitude.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Rusty